Cgi Bible (100% (Wiley)) (Paperback)

~ (Editor), Mark Gaither (Editor), Sebastian Hassinger (Editor), Mike Erwin (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If there wasn't already an omnibus Bible series, the publisher might have had to call this one CGI and Everything Else about the Web. Although more information is usually better than less, this book incorporates so much extra material--HTML, SGML, Vannevar Bush, multimedia, hypertext theory, site hosting, you name it--that the CGI information almost gets lost. This book would be half its present size and significantly handier if the non-CGI stuff were removed.

The CGI coverage in CGI Bible is fair, with good explanations of all the methods and environment variables, as well as some worthwhile CGI theory and troubleshooting material. However, the how-to-program chapters take the form of tired recitations about commenting and reusability and the important CGI libraries get only cursory attention. The brightest part of this package is the CD-ROM, which contains some useful CGI programs.

Product Description

Only some Web browsers support Java and JavaScript, only some VBScript -- and few people upgrade to new releases fast enough to suit the creativity of Web developers. Luckily, there's CGI (Common Gateway Interface), which allows fancy functionality, processing, and interactivity to take place on a Web server, so it doesn't much matter whether it's Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 2 or version 4 on the client side.

If you've programmed in other languages, you'll find CGI scripting pretty straightforward once you get the hang of it. If you've never programmed before, CGI is a good place to start. In either case, you'll find CGI Bible an indispensable resource and guide as you begin using CGI scripting to add valuable functionality to your Web pages.

CGI Bible provides concise, authoritative solutions to...

Creating interactive forms for exchanging information with users Using CGI to connect to SQL (Standard Query Language) databases Handling complex user interactions with clickable image maps and search engines Securing customer communications using the latest security standards Adding sound and video clips and building intelligent user agents Four popular authors have combined efforts to give you the ultimate start-to-finish tour of CGI programming in this update of the best-selling Foundations of WWW Programming with HTML and CGI. You could ask for no more CGI-savvy authors than Ed Tittel, Mark Gaither, Sebastian Hassinger, and Mike Erwin.

Plus, on the bonus CD-ROM you get with CGI Bible, you'll find...

Complete URL listings from the book Ready-to-use source code And excellent HTML and CGI developer utilities.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 618 pages
• Publisher: Wiley Publishing (December 16, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764580167
• ISBN-13: 978-0764580161
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.5 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,730,363 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book is a definite PASS, January 15, 1998

By A Customer

This book is so poorly written, named, and editted, I actually lost faith in IDG Books as well as its authors. The book appears to be "Stuff I found on the web that I thought was cool".

Any CGI information is hidden in between endless entries on HTML, SGML, how the web first came about, or whatever; punctuaited by countless URLs to "interesting" sites with CGI content. Unfortunately, I found many of these URLs to be outdated. Worse, much of the meagar information actually on CGI turned out to be factually incorrect. (see use of "+" and space in input encoding)

All examples used in the book are in Perl. If you do not know Perl cold, and you intend to use this book as a learning tool, expect to spend a significant amount of time to studying that language. You will need to pick up a Perl primer as well since this book is not usefull as one.

The CD was highly disappointing The information on it is limited, and the packages are difficult to unpack and use. My UNIX (Solaris 2.5.1) workstation could read the CD directories but could not actually access the files in them. I had to open the CD on my PC, FTP the files across the LAN to my UNIX workstation and then un-tar them there.

Possibly the worst experience I had came when I sent a list of errors and issues to IDG Books and the authors. The response that I received from them unilaterally dismissed my concerns and was followed by a vague attempt to justify the original text.

This book almost seems to be beefed up to pass the dreaded "weight test". If you are looking for a book to explain CGI in an organized and succint manner, run away from this book. This is the only book that has ever moved me to write to a publisher to ask for a refund.

The only redeeming value of the book is that the CD is very shiny. 8-)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Everything but the kitchen sink..., December 29, 1997

By A Customer

If this is the bible, than I'm definitely a protestant. My major complaint about IDG Books' "CGI Bible" is that it tries to be all things to all people, covering far too many topics. From a beginner's point of view, that may not be a bad thing, but from someone somewhat fluent in Web page creation who just wants to get to the CGI "meat," there is just no need for such tangential coverage of HTML 3.2, SGML, DTDs, et cetera.

With a book on CGI, I want CGI, not whole sections on HTML validation tools. Thus, by the time the authors roll around to a discussion on CGI (and it comes across as a muddled discussion indeed), I discouragedly chucked the thing onto my (growing) pile of bad book investments.

In addition, the bundled CD-ROM disc totally blows! It is about as poorly formatted and badly laid out as I've ever seen. Files are wholly unidentifiable--until you open them and try to find out what the program is.

In overview, change the title to "Web Bible." If you're starting from the ground up, this book definitely touches base on everything one needs to know. But if you're looking solely for a CGI informatorium--take a pass.

Either way, as a Web rookie or veteran, if you buy this book, be prepared to use the CD as a drink coaster.

--W. Campbell, Encino, Calif., USA