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Rating: 
Summary: This book is unusable
Review: I Bought this book thinking it was going to help me, but it didn't, this jonny dude doesn't know how to write a book. all he says is "we will learn more about this in the next chapters, and when you are done reading it, you realize you have learned nothing, please don't buy it.
Rating:
Summary: This book is unusable
Review: I Bought this book thinking it was going to help me, but it didn't, this jonny dude doesn't know how to write a book. all he says is "we will learn more about this in the next chapters, and when you are done reading it, you realize you have learned nothing, please don't buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not -that- bad at all!
Review: I felt the last review was a bit unfair. While I agree that the book could have benefitted from additional examples, I thought the level of explanation was adequate. On the down side: As an intermediate tutorial, I thought that there ought to have been more depth as to what one can do with CGI. Cookies and Forms are interesting, but I'd like to know how to make some of the more complex applications. The book lacked these, and thus I would not recommend it for advanced programmers unless they want a handy reference manual for the quick stuff. On the up side: I thought the writers did an excellent job explaining the 'why' and 'how' of CGI. With the knowledge of the internal workings they gave me, I feel confident that I can accomplish what I want to accomplish with CGI. That's something I found lacking in quite a few of the other manuals I flipped through. Who I recommend it for: Anyone who'd like to understand -why- CGI works, and would like to get thier feet wet with some simple CGI scripting.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty disappointed
Review: I have never seen in my life a programming book that chooses to use SCREEN shots for TEXT windows. If you can read the tiny code samples (the reason one would buy a book like this!) then maybe you'd find it of value. I never unwrapped the CD because I felt the book was tedious to read and gave weak examples. I give it two over one stars because if it were the only book on the subject it might be worth reading, but fortunately it is not. Conversely the PHP fast and easy book was excellent so that is why I bought this one. Shame on PrimaTech to not use the same standards.
Rating: 
Summary: Some parts good others frustrating
Review: The book does explain the interaction of Forms, cookies etc through the CGI to manipulation in Perl. This is does well - where would you start to describe programming so you could describe the whole in a sequential manner without any hiccough? Before reading I had some mixed ideas about CGI/Perl and the other languages. I have programmed for many years so learning Perl is not too up hill - regular expressions are the big learning for me. I would rate the book higher if it only had the text. The big let down is the CD-ROM. There are the usual couple of time-limited demos plus the all important examples from the chapters. Here is the let down - you spend an age matching example in book to 'what they've called it' on the CD. Worse still you expect to have the Perl script available to pop up on your own server. Think again! So you are forced to run the HTML as is (pointing to Johnnie's web) only to find the web doesn't exist. Now that's bad! To be fair there are some Perl scripts on the CD, but nowhere near 100%. One of the best ways of learning is to examine other people's code. Overall - gentle explanation of CGI and Perl, at reasonable cost, with some support from CD. 3/5. Improve the CD contents and that would be 4 or 5/5
Rating: 
Summary: Introduction excerpt from the book.
Review: This book, CGI Fast & Easy Web Development, is designed to take you from the stage of not knowing what the letters CGI stand for to having the ability to create and modify CGI applications. The applications shown throughout the book are created using Perl, a scripting language that is commonly used on the Web. It will be helpful for you to have an understanding of basic Web page development; however, the examples provided include the necessary HTML code for creating the forms you will use with your CGI applications. You can read this book from cover to cover and gain an understanding of CGI and writing applications, or you can use it as a reference tool to look up specific tasks and enhance your current skills. I have included enough theoretical information to assist you in using and modifying the code contained in the book without, hopefully, boring you to death or totally confusing you. The CD-ROM that accompanies this book contains all of the HTML and CGI code used in every example shown. All of the code is highly documented, using comments, to allow you to copy and paste it into your application and modify it without referencing the book¾you may need to reference the book on the more advanced programs or the lengthy lines of code, as I will keep the comments concise so as not to make the applications unwieldy in length. When I was first introduced to CGI applications, there was not the plethora of books that are currently available. I had the choice between two basic types of books. The first type consisted of theoretical explanations of CGI and Perl with very few, if any, usable examples of code. The second type consisted of usable examples of code, but they did not contain enough information to allow me to modify the application or create a more advanced application than what was shown. As I began writing this book I decided that I would create a book that I would have liked to have when I was getting started with CGI: a book that contained usable code and enough information to allow the reader to modify the code to fit their needs or create better applications than the examples. This book is a powerful book for Web developers with little or no previous programming experience. If you are experienced, you will find it extremely useful as a reference tool, and you might gain a better understanding of many of the processes you currently use. For the novice developer, I have included detailed examples, and I have included extensive comments in the examples contained on the CD-ROM. The idea is that you can copy and paste the examples directly into a text editor and use them without changing any code; moreover, the comments should allow you to make the changes needed to customize the code to your specific application. You will find it useful to read through the entire book and then use it as a reference guide when you are creating your applications. For the experienced developer, you will find that the comments in the examples explain the code in a manner that will help you gain a better understanding of CGI and Perl. You will find that you can skip some of the first chapters; however, I recommend that you read them in order to gain any additional knowledge they contain about CGI and Perl.
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