What basically is pearl and cgi?

Andy92 · 11-16-2005, 09:26 PM

Hey there,

In brief, what is perl and cgi?

Is it worth learning them if im learning, php, mysql, javascript and css?

TheShaner · 11-16-2005, 10:44 PM

Perl is a programming language that is known for its string manipulation. It's commonly used in CGI applications, which can perform similarly to PHP, ASP, etc.

However, unlike PHP and ASP, you can't write HTML directly in the page. All the HTML has to be printed out by the CGI application. So it's a Perl program that then has to print HTML to the browser. PHP and ASP can allow HTML to just be written directly in the page and the server will only process the code inside the special tags.

You really don't have to learn (right now) while you're learning the others. Perl will seem be more difficult than PHP, ASP, and JavaScript. I'd save that for later while you're still learning those.

-Shane

Andy92 · 11-17-2005, 04:34 PM

Ok,

I will probably study it after christmas.

And do pearl and cgi make a nice pc language couple?

And what does pearl and what doers cgi stand for?

hyperbole · 11-17-2005, 10:56 PM

CGI is the Common Gateway Interface. It is a group of values that are passed from the web server to any program that it runs when a page request asks for a server side program to run. Most commonly they are made available to the program by environment variables. The (usually Apache) server stores the information about the page request in a set of known environment variables and the program (or script) can access their information by getting the information out of these variables.

Perl is a scripting language. It is often used for writing CGI scripts, but it can be used for doing lots of other things as well. It can be run on a machine where there is a web server running on the machine or not.

You can run Perl on a PC. Look for ActivePerl for a source to download a copy that will run on a PC.

You will only have CGI on your PC if you have a web server (such as Apache, Xitami, etc. ) running on the machine.

.

Andy92 · 11-18-2005, 04:39 PM

Ok.

And who made perl and cgi?

FishMonger · 11-18-2005, 05:29 PM

CGI is a set of standards written by a group of people, not just one person.
http://www.w3.org/CGI/

Larry Wall is the originator of Perl
http://www.wall.org/~larry/

Andy92 · 11-19-2005, 10:42 AM

Isnt the w3c a group of big companys like microsoft, adobe, mozilla etc?

Jeff Mott · 11-25-2005, 07:51 AM

No.

About the W3C

11-16-2005, 09:26 PM	PM User \| #1
Andy92 Regular Coder Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Horsham, West Sussex, UK Posts: 362 Thanks: 7 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	What basically is pearl and cgi? Hey there, In brief, what is perl and cgi? Is it worth learning them if im learning, php, mysql, javascript and css? __________________ Pixeno 100Mbps Web Hosting - Twitter!

11-17-2005, 04:34 PM	PM User \| #3
Andy92 Regular Coder Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Horsham, West Sussex, UK Posts: 362 Thanks: 7 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Ok, I will probably study it after christmas. And do pearl and cgi make a nice pc language couple? And what does pearl and what doers cgi stand for? __________________ Pixeno 100Mbps Web Hosting - Twitter!

11-18-2005, 04:39 PM	PM User \| #5
Andy92 Regular Coder Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Horsham, West Sussex, UK Posts: 362 Thanks: 7 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Ok. And who made perl and cgi? __________________ Pixeno 100Mbps Web Hosting - Twitter!

11-19-2005, 10:42 AM	PM User \| #7
Andy92 Regular Coder Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Horsham, West Sussex, UK Posts: 362 Thanks: 7 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	Isnt the w3c a group of big companys like microsoft, adobe, mozilla etc? __________________ Pixeno 100Mbps Web Hosting - Twitter!

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11-16-2005, 10:44 PM	PM User \| #2
TheShaner Senior Coder Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 1,118 Thanks: 2 Thanked 37 Times in 37 Posts	Perl is a programming language that is known for its string manipulation. It's commonly used in CGI applications, which can perform similarly to PHP, ASP, etc. However, unlike PHP and ASP, you can't write HTML directly in the page. All the HTML has to be printed out by the CGI application. So it's a Perl program that then has to print HTML to the browser. PHP and ASP can allow HTML to just be written directly in the page and the server will only process the code inside the special tags. You really don't have to learn (right now) while you're learning the others. Perl will seem be more difficult than PHP, ASP, and JavaScript. I'd save that for later while you're still learning those. -Shane

11-17-2005, 10:56 PM	PM User \| #4
hyperbole Regular Coder Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Madison, Indiana, USA Posts: 166 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	CGI is the Common Gateway Interface. It is a group of values that are passed from the web server to any program that it runs when a page request asks for a server side program to run. Most commonly they are made available to the program by environment variables. The (usually Apache) server stores the information about the page request in a set of known environment variables and the program (or script) can access their information by getting the information out of these variables. Perl is a scripting language. It is often used for writing CGI scripts, but it can be used for doing lots of other things as well. It can be run on a machine where there is a web server running on the machine or not. You can run Perl on a PC. Look for ActivePerl for a source to download a copy that will run on a PC. You will only have CGI on your PC if you have a web server (such as Apache, Xitami, etc. ) running on the machine. .

11-18-2005, 05:29 PM	PM User \| #6
FishMonger Moderator Join Date: May 2005 Location: Southern tip of Silicon Valley Posts: 2,529 Thanks: 2 Thanked 96 Times in 92 Posts	CGI is a set of standards written by a group of people, not just one person. http://www.w3.org/CGI/ Larry Wall is the originator of Perl http://www.wall.org/~larry/

11-25-2005, 07:51 AM	PM User \| #8
Jeff Mott Regular Coder Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 290 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	No. About the W3C