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Questions and Answers

Today seems like a good day to break open the old electronic mail bag and see what falls out:

• CGI is too slow on my web server
• Can I write a complete web server or proxy server in Perl?
• What is Dynamic HTML?

Q: CGI scripts are too complex and/or slow on my web server. I need to find some ways to improve the speed of my scripts without buying new, expensive server hardware.

A:There are many options that will allow you to radically improve the speed of your CGI scripts (or simpler alternatives), run them in the same process with your web server (instead of forking for every request), and even embed them in your HTML files (similar but superior to Microsoft's Active Server Pages). Check out these links for more information on free software that's available to help speed things up:

• FastCGI - an improved, faster interface between the web server and CGI program.
• PHP/FI 2.0 (old) - server-side html-embedded scripting language. It lets you write simple scripts right in your HTML files.
• PHP Hypertext Preprocessor 3.0 - server-side HTML embedded scripting language and it is a complete rewrite of the popular PHP/FI 2.0 language.
• XSSI - eXtended Server Side Includes allows web developers to create dynamic documents without having to write CGI scripts.
• HTML::Embperl - Embed perl code in HMTL documents
• Perl/CGI information available at reference.perl.com

Q: I want some examples that show how a web server can be written entirely in Perl. How can I set up a simple proxy server that will let many machines on a local network connect to the Internet?

A: Perl is quite a versatile language. Take a look at these links for more information:

• Perl Page - has an excellent http server (mhttpd) and proxy server (phd) written entirely in Perl.
• CPAN has an index of many Perl modules which will help in all aspects of Perl programming.
• reference.perl.com has many pointers to various Perl resources that will be helpful.

Q: I've heard about Dynamic HTML, but I've seen only a few examples out there. Where can I learn more about it and get more information?

A: Well, this isn't exactly related to CGI programming, because it runs on the client's web browser. Combined with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), it allows much better control over the placement and rendering of HTML pages. You'll need to use Netscape Communicator 4.0 or later or Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or later. Even worse, however, code written for one browser will not work correctly on the other. Anyway, check out these links for more:

• NetObjects Fusion 3.0
• Netscape's Dynamic HTML Developer Central
• Microsoft's Site Builder Dynamic HTML

Author: Doug Steinwand
Date: [04/28/98]

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