Customer Reviews

CGI Programming on the World Wide Web (Nutshell Handbooks)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is an excellent book. I'd recommend it to anyone who is getting started in CGI programming. It will not teach you Perl; for that I used O'Reilly's "Programming perl" while I read through this book's examples. For CGI programming, however, this book does its job very well.I noticed another review that said that code in this book didn't work. I've actually used code from this book in a half-dozen sites now, and it worked fine. More importantly, the code was well-enough explained that I've modified it over and over again to do what I needed.I still pull this book out every so often, and a few of my friends come by my house and read it. It's a very useful tool for anyone who wants to get started with CGI programming.

If you have a basic understanding of Perl and HTML, this book helps youlearn CGI. The book also introduced me to postscript and gd, which havebeen quite valuable for a lot of applicatioins. I enjoyed Shishir'smodest, down-to-earth writing style. Since many people have criticizedthis book, let me refute the most common criticisms:"The source code should be on a CD-ROM".No. Programming is in the fingers. You learn by typing. Anyway, you canFTP it if your lazy."The level of detail is poor".That's what man pages and FAQ's are for. Shishir is giving more of a guided tour of CGI, with just enough detail to get started in each area."The source code has mistakes/is missing semicolons."I didn't find this problem. But anyway, you should know enough Perl to put the semicolons where they belong. If you don't know Perl, this bookis not for you.Everything in this book is available on the web, but the book will savethe beginner a ton of time digging around.Also, Shishir does not encourage use of CGI.pm, which is both good and bad. I think it's good because it teaches better understanding of the low-level CGI mechanics. On the flipside, use of CGI.pm can protectyou from a lot of obvious mistakes.I haven't found a better introduction to CGI.

The author of this book does a nice job outlining many different aspects of CGI and perl, but it is nothing but an outline. If you need to quickly get a general idea on how to do something you have never done, this book does a nice job explaining it to you. However, if you want to do something more detailed involving any of the subjects discussed, you need to look elsewhere. The examples contained in the book are horrible. They are confusing when you look at them, contain little comments, and they often do not work. I found the text somewhat enlightening, but the examples just confused me. I do not recommend this book for beginners or more experienced programmers. I recommend it for anyone who fits in between.

Shishir Gundavaram shines as O'Reilly's latest author in the best introduction available on CGI programming, the "back-end" of Web site creation for the internet.

Gundavaram begins his work with a detailed description of the CGI protocols and how they interrelate to web programming.

Using Perl 5.0, one of many languages available for CGI programming, Gundavaram quickly moves on to discuss the creation of interactive forms on the Web, linking these forms to available databases of information, and making the client's browser remember information about a user from session to session using Netscape's "cookie" technology.

Finally, Gundavaran includes information about testing CGI scripts and on increasing their security, certainly two important aspects when using potentially dangerous programs on internet-accessable web machines.

Perhaps the best aspect of Gundavaran's work is its emphasis on examples. From guestbooks to games, Gundavaran shows how easy it is to increase interactivity on a web site using CGI and forms.

Overall, Gundavaran's creation is a information-packed, no- nonsense reference and tutorial guide to CGI programming.

Not easy to understand. Sometimes it is difficult to follow what the author means. There is too much detail, which I feel was getting in the way of understanding CGI.
I was initlally exicited , but after reading the first few chapters, i think i will have to look elsewhere.

This book is a waste. It has about 2 chapters of any real value. I'd recommend O'Reilly's excellent "Learning Perl" by Schwartz and Christiansen. It has as much useful information in its CGI chapters as the entire "CGI..." book. And you really have to know Perl anyway to understand the "CGI..." book. So start there and see what happens.

No wonder it is out of print. I bought it based on the O'Reilly name. But this book told me everything has to be taken with a grain of salt.

The book is a good overall intro to CGI and Perl. The examples, however, are not very accurate. Most of the examples leave out the semi-colons which cause errors, but other than that, its not a bad book.

The book is inaccurate, showing examples that do not work. Sample files from the book (downloadable) are neither documented well, nor functional. Treatment of Perl is based on a few scenarios that the author found useful, most likely they will not pertain to you. The author neither gives you the constructs, nor the framework for you to build on his knowledge and create solutions of your own. After purchasing and reading the book, I had to resolve my Perl needs by searching for code on the web and changing it to suit me. You can do much better with the free information available via your browser.

If you are a beginner with programming, this is definitely not for you. Get the Learning Perl book to understand Perl first, then come back to this book and understand CGI. The examples are boring. The explanations are dry. A nice remedy for insomnia.