CGI Programming in C and Perl (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Nicely balanced treatment of CGI programming in both C, which has distinct performance advantages, and Perl, currently the most popular language for CGI. Written by the long-time maintainer of the Usenet comp.infosystems.www FAQ (and fellow Seattleite), Thomas Boutell.

Product Description

An essential technical programming reference for Web sites. In concise, clear language, this book explains how to write CGI programs to implement dynamic documents that provide interactivity and multimedia features for Web sites using UNIX-based HTTP servers.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (April 29, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201422190
• ISBN-13: 978-0201422191
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #102,625 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but old. Needs to be updated., September 16, 1999

By	"webgeekinc" (Port Charlotte, FL United States) - See all my reviews

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.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a little out of date, but pretty good, April 6, 1999

By A Customer

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1) There aren't enough code examples per chapter (remember what I bought the book for), and 2) The material is woefully out of date.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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CGI Programming in C & Perl, March 9, 2002

By A Customer

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).