Revised 01/01/04
| HOME | | WEB SITES | | BANNERS and GRAPHICS | | GUESTBOOKS and FORMS | | CONTACT |
I am sure that you have been to some web pages where you fill out information, form or comment and then submit it. Ever wonder who collects the info? Where does the info go? CGI (common gateway interface) makes this all possible. A gateway is an application which allows two systems to pass information between them. A server simply follows a set of rules for passing information. As long as the information that is sent to a server is recognizable (or common) it can process it properly. There are many great computer languages which interact with CGI, but we like Perl around here. Perl (practical extraction and report language) is very powerful and has room to grow for many years to come. Perl was conceived by Larry Wall for a company he was working for, to extract information of a very specific nature before the world wide web even existed for most of us. The great thing about Perl is that Larry's background is not in computer programming. He is a linguist so he approached Perl as language itself, which can constantly change and evolve. Perl just gets better and better.
Other computer languages and scripts can become stagnant and restrictive over time. Larry wanted Perl to be superior to and more useful than any program or compiler that one has to pay high dollar for. He is still very involved in its development and implementation. Perl is an open source code (like the entire Linux platform) and is free for anyone to use. Of course, this flies in the face of conventional wisdom in todays profit-driven society.
Some may be skeptical of a system in which they don't have to shell out big bucks for. What is the catch? It must not be good if it is free, right? There is no catch. Instead of a team of a few computer programmers working on a idea for one company there are many people writing and correcting scripts all over the world, not to mention the vast amount of Perl scripts already in existence. I would rather work with a system where I can receive help from many different people and sources. Many times, when you buy a specific program or compiler, you get poor support at best. Forget about actually speaking to a live human being when you really need to. The Perl community is very helpful, down right nice, and has a lot to offer. As the saying goes, "three hundred million oysters can't be wrong"..... something like that anyway.
Here at Splatcat Web Design we are constantly studying the latest information on Perl, CGI and their related topics in order to stay on the cutting edge of the interactive web environment which exists today. The more we learn and the more Perl evolves the better your web pages can be. Web sites need not be one sided, meaning only the visitor can gather information. This is your web site! Talk to us about making your site work for you to get the information you desire from your visitors.
Perl is much like a computer program. It can even generate a web page by itself. It uses scripts which contain instructions for a computer. A computer program is made up of compiled scripts. Programs tend to run faster due to the ease at which the computer can read them. Scripts are simple text files which are interpreted when needed and inserted into web pages. Perl is somewhat of a mixture, in that it is written in text format and compiled when it is executed. We can add scripts to your web page so you can gather information from your visitors. Here are some examples that you have seen on some web pages utilizing CGI, Perl and other languages to extract and report information from a visitor:
