Customer Reviews

CGI Programming in C and Perl

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Those of us who participate in the CGI programming newsgroups know Thomas' reputation and it's steller. When this book was first released, it was the best book available, and it some ways it still is. But the current edition is showing its age. It doesn't cover many new CGI topics or concepts. I still use this book as a reference now and again, but I wouldn't buy it today.

I'd written many complex CGI scripts using Perl before even buying this book, and the concepts in it are sound and well explained. My purpose for this book was to make the difficult transition from PERL-based CGI programming to C-based CGI, and this book definitely served the purpose well. My only two complaints are: 1) There aren't enough code examples per chapter (remember what I bought the book for), and 2) The material is woefully out of date. Still, I haven't seen anything better at CGI using C out there, and I've been looking for a long time.

An EXCELLENT buy -- you don't have to be a "Pro" to use the programs here -- but you can't be a rookie either... Get it "New" or "Used"--the price difference is insignificant--compared to what's inside the book....I bought this book a few months ago--here on AMAZON--and was delighted to find this book contained entire (web)-C-programs that ACTUALLY WORKED! If your web-server(CGI-scripts) are runnning at a crawl...it's probably because you are running a "convenient-scripting-language" -- instead of a C-program!! This book is NOT long-winded, but very practical. I have seen (repackaged???-or-similar)-versions of this code running on a few of the "higher-profile" web-sites. Over the years, I have acquired a STACK of other C-Programming Books--and I am afraid to buy any more of them--because I am tired of EXPERIMENTING to see which ones are PRACTICAL to READ, and I'm tired of reading GOBS of POINTLESS-and/or-BLOATED text--I am very happy with this book. I am a self-taught (Linux) C Programmer, and the C-and-PERL-programs from this book run well on Linux(kernels 2.2 thru 2.4)... This book is a great start in getting you up and running--but the rest is up to you--since you'll REALLY NEED to UNDERSTAND MODERN WEB SERVERS !!! ...and... ONE LAST NOTE-- this code may be considered "old" (written in 1996?) --it's NOT obsolete--but it still runs perfectly-and-flawlessly "as is" --on a modern-day Apache Web Server(Linux). This code has stood it's test of time. After you use these programs--it may become more obvious as to the "updates-additions-or-deletions" you'll want to make. Be sure to get Boutell's UPDATED CODE (from his web-site).

I know if you've read the reviews previous to this one, you should already know that you need to know C and Perl to read this book. But I am going to say it again. And you don't only need to be familiar with it. You need to KNOW it. If you don't, you'll get lost in three chapters like I did. Since it is a book based entirely on examples, unless you understand the code perfectly, you'll be lost. You also need to know the basis of CGI scripting to know where the script is getting at. You may ask if you already should know all this to understand the book, why buy it? For the examples I guess, but don't buy it to learn is my suggestion. Get a Dummie's book for that. Then get this one as reference.

The basic information and concepts are good but...

This book is seemingly out of date. It keeps referring to Netscape 1 for goodness sakes! The example pictures make it clear how outdated this book is. In such a fast changing environment, looking at these examples was a big turn off!

But I suppose the information is not completely outdated. There's not much to CGI, so I guess it doesn't really change. Still there are better books out there

I tried for a long time to get a handle on C. My background is PERL, and then later PHP, so i figured it might make sense for me to come at this from a web-based perspective. By chapter 4 I knew enough to start writing simple programs on my own (not using samples in the book). By the end of chapter 7 I was well versed enough to start more complex programs using PATH_INFO variables. Extremely good book. If you write web-based apps, and are thinking about learning C this is *the* book.

One reviewer mentioned something about screenshots looking old, which is true, they are obviously Netscape 1, running on Unix's now ancient Motif window manager, but the concepts are all still exactly the same. The cgi's you write will look the same on Netscape 1, as they do on Seamonkey, or IE, or Safari so that's no big deal.

I gave it a 5 because the concepts contained inside are very well written easy to understand and this is the only book that has given me a decent base on which to learn C.

If I could change my rating now, I'd give it a 3 or 4. I wrote some more complex CGI's based on some of the ones in this book that didn't work. So for kicks I copied the source from the cd and tried to just compile those...gcc refused saying I hadn't declared strcmp(). :-/

Indeed, I did a 'gcc *' in the SOURCE/C dir and didn't end up with a single a.out file. They all gave errors either on strcmp, feof, fgets, fprintf, in, isspace, fclose, and numerous others.

Still an excellent book but things have changed a lot since it was written.

Hey Thomas! How 'bout a Second Edition? :-)

Not a bad book at all, I bought this book when I didn't know either C or Perl, and man, I was confused. However, once I learned Perl (through another book) this made a lot more sense. If you want to design some CGI stuff, it certainly gets you in to the business quick, although do get ready for some concentration being needed because if, like me, you are a new Perl programmer, it'll catch you out.

However, that was probably because I didn't know Perl much. Although it would be better to know C than Perl to read this book, (the writers preference I believe), it still does the business.

I bought this book around 1998. It was the only book that cover
CGI and C, the rest talked about PERL which I hadnt learned yet.

Once the reader learns the basics (assuming they already know 1 of the 2 languages and have a webserver to play with), they should be able to construct any CGI program in almost any language.

The title makes it clear C and perl a required. This is a great no nonsense book and people should not expect it to teach C, Perl AND CGI. Much better than all my wasted time with QUE publications. A new edition would be appreciated!

I was new to CGI programming when I started to read this book. I finished it in a week and I have written several very complex CGI programs since then. It's a good book for everyone.