The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'CGI Programming on the World Wide Web':
Reviewer amazon.com wrote:An excellent book for expert programmers, CGI Programming on the World Wide Web doesn't waste time with miscellaneous or frivolous
topics, but instead focuses on the workings of the CGI specification down to the tiniest detail. Author Shishir Gundavaram begins by
explaining what CGI does--material that's probably familiar to most people reading this book. Fortunately, he promptly moves on to a
complete explanation of each of the CGI methods and environment variables. The author also pays attention to every language you could
conceivably want to use with CGI, especially ever-popular Perl.
But CGI is simple, and there isn't enough to it to merit an alphabetical reference of more than a chapter in length. So, CGI Programming
on the World Wide Web takes on the task of explaining CGI applications--some unusual ones as well as the usual suspects. In addition
to teaching guest book and quiz applications (you may be better off with a book that puts its code on a CD-ROM), Gundavaram explains
how to port e-mail and Usenet news to the Web with CGI and details a pretty cool Concentration game. Just for kicks, he makes the
game look good in a text-only browser--a real technical feat that's kind of fun to read about.
If you prefer a more technical reference and discussion book to a simpler tutorial, CGI Programming on the World Wide Web is the book
for you.
Reviewer Koos van den Hout wrote:A good how-to on writing CGI scripts for websites, the most commonly used way to generate dynamic content, present data, get data from users. Touches other scripting languages then continues purely on Perl4.
Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
The author has put together very comprehensive coverage of CGI (Common Gateway
Interface) programming, touching on basic forms, server and CGI includes,
graphics and multimedia, advanced and multiple forms, gateways, and database
queries. In addition, while the bulk of the examples are in Perl, there are
comparative samples of C, Visual Basic, and Applescript sources.
Unfortunately, Gundavaram does not handle the basics as well as the fancy
stuff. He relies too heavily on the code itself, while his explanations and
comments are unclear and unhelpful. The "how" seems to be left behind in the
hurry to do something interesting. The Perl wizard will likely find it easy
enough to follow the code, but the beginning CGI programmer, however
experienced in other areas, is going to find the book very difficult.
copyright Robert M. Slade, 1996
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