Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web (Visual QuickStart Guide) (Paperback)

by Elizabeth Castro (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
One of the best things about Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web is the seamless way the author incorporates terminology into her explanations. Elizabeth Castro, author of HTML 4 for the World Wide Web, understands the intermediate user: someone who would be bored by a beginner's guide, but isn't ready to step up to heavy-hitting programming texts either.

In Perl and CGI, she explains basic concepts--such as the difference between a compiled and an interpreted script--within the text, so there's no need to keep flipping back to the glossary. Readers should be familiar with HTML and comfortable with technical explanations, diagrams, and general vocabulary.

Anyone trying to get a grasp on something as complex and powerful as Perl will appreciate Castro's relatively straightforward technique. For example, in the first chapter, Castro explains some basic Perl concepts sensibly: that the $ stands for the s in scalar; the @ sign stands for the a in array; and that the % that labels a hash or associative array indicates two circles on each side of the slash as parts of a pair. This granular, logical way of building Perl knowledge will get new Perl users started. More experienced users will want to use this book as a workbook and refresher. --Jennifer Buckendorff

Product Description
Perl is by far the most popular programming language for creating scripts that add powerful interactive features to Web pages. Included on most UNIX platforms and available free of charge for Windows and Macintosh, Perl lets you place forms on your Web site that collect and process user input such as product orders and comments, enable visitors to conduct keyword searches for information on your site, and integrate a database into your site, among many other capabilities.Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide gets you to the heart of Perl scripting with CGI. Even first-time programmers will be able to create interactive Web pages and, more importantly, you'll be able to use your new-found familiarity with Perl to understand and customize the multitude of scripts that already exist on the Web. Following on the huge success of Liz Castro's top-selling HTML:Visual QuickStart Guide-the book to have to learn or reference HTML-Castro's Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide is soon to becomethe choice for learning Perl and CGI. Author of the acclaimed, best-selling HTML:Visual QuickStart Guide, with over 100,000 copies sold. Teaches you all you need to know to start creating CGI scripts in Perl. Shows how to make your Web pages stand out with interactive features such as guest books and forms. Assumes no prior programming experience.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press (November 13, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 020135358X
• ISBN-13: 978-0201353587
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (95 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,211,353 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #29 in

  Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Languages & Tools > CGI Programming

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Superb for the Beginner.. not the best reference book though, December 13, 1999

By A Customer

I bought this title back when I was first teaching myself Perl. At the time, I had done some BASIC and VB programming, but knew nothing about Perl and CGI except that it was one of the most common ways to add some interactivity and form handling to a web site.

Admittedly, the coverage of the subject is a little light, and the hold-the-novice-user-by-the-hand- style was actually confusing (she should have used the more standard method of using bold, italics, and monospace fonts to indicate output, user required input, and variables) BUT considering I was at the absolute beginner level with respect to Perl and CGI, I feel the book lived up to my expectations. I wanted something to get me started quickly, and not to assume I knew anything about CGI and PERL but did assume that I knew HTML. I did not want a book that would cover the subject matter exhaustively, just give me a basic "Quick-Start" which it did quite well.

I continued to use the book as a reference for a few months, though it's really not laid out well for that purpose. (I would suggest the O'Reilly Perl CD Bookshelf for that) If you know PERL and CGI basics, this one is not for you, but if you're comfortable with HTML and want to start doing more, It's worth a try.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars it is what it says it is, January 12, 2000

By	James A. Donaldson (Seattle) - See all my reviews

I just completed a class on writing CGI scripts with Perl, and although this was not part of the reading list for the class, nevertheless it's what I used to actually learn what I needed to know. This is NOT a book about learning Perl. It is about writing CGI scripts using Perl. You'll get a decent introduction to Perl syntax and Castro will move you right into applying it to writing CGI scripts, primarily for handling forms. I'm not aware of any other book that gives you exactly what you need (if this is what you're looking for) in such a nice, compact introduction. The "visual" part of the book (the pictures the previous reviewer is lamenting the absence of), is really just simple "screenshot"-like figures showing what Netscape or Explorer would look like given the particular exercise being explained. No, there are no big color pictures in here, but it's really not necessary. Prior knowledge of HTML is recommended, but not absolutely necessary as the author spends some time explaining the HTML syntax behind forms.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Perl/CGI book on the market, May 11, 1999

By A Customer

I have read several other books in an attempt to learn Perl, but they were either too technical or too boring to even hold my interest. This book is the polar opposite. It is the first Perl manual I've read that actually explains Perl line by line, in a language that even an old dog novice like myself can understand. Instead of filling the pages with line after line of obscure Perl code without the slightest hint of explanation, the code here is explained beautifully. My questions were answered almost before they came to mind. That is why this book was so effective.

I was writing simple cgi's even before finishing the book. This afternoon, I wrote a cgi that takes input from a lengthy form, prints a confirmation/thank you html page to let the user know that their input was received, sends the parsed and formatted form data via email to the receiving party, and generates an include file that automatically updates an online html log that everyone in the company can see and track. Two weeks ago I couldn't have possibly done this. Honestly, I wouldn't even have known where to start.

No, this is not a complete Perl training manual, nor is it meant to be. But if you need to use Perl/CGI on the web to process forms and information, there is no better book on the market. I use it everyday and highly recommend it to everyone.