GuyotLeonF@aol.com wrote:
> OK, for ignoramuses like me!!!
> Please explain the terms:
> 'CGI script' & 'perl script'
Ok, I'll take a stab at it, & if I get it wrong, Malcolm and the others
can laugh and throw old Mountain Dew cans at me <g>
CGI stands for "Common Gateway Interface", which basically defines a
method for what a user sees as a regular web page to be created "on the
fly", by a program running on the web server. "Script" is a term for a
type of computer program which is commonly used to process CGI
requests. So in general, a "CGI script" is a program that automatically
generates web pages as they are requested. See
http://nightflight.com/cgi-bin/foldoc.cgi?Common+Gateway+Interface
for more info.
In the simplest form of what I suggested, the CGI script(s) would look
at a directory of stored graphics files, and build web page(s) on the
fly to display those files. Adding a picture to the web page would be
as easy as adding a new file to the directory.
Perl is a powerful programming language, that has become the 'de facto'
standard for writing CGI programs. Perl is what's known as an
'interpretive' language, which essentially means that programs written
in Perl are stored only in their 'source' or human-readable form. (The
other major class of programming languages are 'compiled', meaning the
program source must go through one or more transformations into 'machine
code' before being executed.) The UNIX term for 'interpreted program'
is 'script.
So, a "Perl script" is a program written in Perl.
Now you know more than you ever wanted to <g> but if you want another
dissertation (or even if I can just clarify something for you), please
let me know !
Randall
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