- What
do I need to create such a site?
Where can I find a host that meets all these requirements?
Who will benefit most from this site? (return to top)
- Those who are remotely
hosted and want to create a dynamic yet compatible user friendly site
will benefit most from this site.
What
do I need to create such a site? (return
to top)
Obviously, you will
need a web site. Your site must have CGI capabilty and have PERL installed.
This is in addition to FTP access. Telnet access is not necessary, but
makes life much easier. If your local system is running under Windows95,
that will make life easier too.
Where
can I find a host that meets all these requirements? (return
to top)
- Here
is a list of recomended hosts:
What
is PERL? (return
to top)
It’s a highly dynamic, fully capable Web
programming language and is compatible with just about every single browser
ever invented, it’s lightweight, fast, and almost never, ever crashes?
Neither Microsoft nor Sun is hyping it, yet everyone in the know is using
it. It’s not a buzzword like JavaScript or ActiveX. It’s been a proven
technology sense the beginning of the web. Until now only hardcore Web
developers, have even heard of Practical Extraction and Report Language,
or "perl."
What
is CGI? (return
to top)
Well start with a little clarification
about the difference between CGI and perl. CGI refers to Common Gateway
Interface, a means by which Web servers talk to external programs, which
in turn send processed results back to the server, which then sends them
to you. CGI programs can be written in any programming language, but are
most frequently written in perl or C++.
When
Would I Use Perl? (return
to top)
The biggest difference between using perl/cgi
and a solution like JavaScript is that perl does its work on the server
side, rather than inside the browser. After a perl script runs, its results
– usually in HTML format – are sent back to the browser as a complete document.
Peril's advantages are that it can do heavy lifting on fast machines, it
can process information that resides on the server itself, and because
it returns completed HTML documents, doesn't require any special plug-ins
or capabilities on the part of the user. That's why things like search
engines often use perl – the searchable database resides on the server,
not on your machine. As its name implies, Perl also happens to excel at
text processing.
Perl is also usually behind the scenes at sites that include page-hit counters, ad banners, guestbooks, message boards, online forms, interactive databases, and more.
Where
can i find FREE Perl code? (return
to top)
You can find all you need at the following
site:
Why
Haven't I Heard More About Perl? (return
to top)
It's pretty simple really. No one makes
money from perl. It is freeware. Although it's been powering the web for
years, it's really not to any ones advantage to let the world know about
it. However, in spite of all this Perl continues to gain acceptance across
the web.
Another reason you may no be the aware
of perl is that it grew up on Unix. It grew up right long side of the Internet,
which is probably why it's such a nice fit.