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Rating: 
Summary: Good introduction to CGI Programming
Review: CGI Programming can be a tricky skill to master. The author has done a good job of introducing the reader to CGI programming, describing how to write forms in HTML and how to make them interactive with CGI perl scripts. Having done CGI programming for some time now, I realise how much this book (and its source code examples) has helped. However, more advanced programmers would spend their money better by purchasing a more advanced book.
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Summary: CGI Programming on the World Wide Web
Review: CGI Programming on the World Wide We
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Summary: Good Introduction to CGI
Review: If you have a basic understanding of Perl and HTML, this book helps youlearn CGI. The book also introduced me to postscript and gd, which havebeen quite valuable for a lot of applicatioins. I enjoyed Shishir'smodest, down-to-earth writing style. Since many people have criticizedthis book, let me refute the most common criticisms:"The source code should be on a CD-ROM".No. Programming is in the fingers. You learn by typing. Anyway, you canFTP it if your lazy."The level of detail is poor".That's what man pages and FAQ's are for. Shishir is giving more of a guided tour of CGI, with just enough detail to get started in each area."The source code has mistakes/is missing semicolons."I didn't find this problem. But anyway, you should know enough Perl to put the semicolons where they belong. If you don't know Perl, this bookis not for you.Everything in this book is available on the web, but the book will savethe beginner a ton of time digging around.Also, Shishir does not encourage use of CGI.pm, which is both good and bad. I think it's good because it teaches better understanding of the low-level CGI mechanics. On the flipside, use of CGI.pm can protectyou from a lot of obvious mistakes.I haven't found a better introduction to CGI.
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Summary: O'Reilly and Associates have done it again!
Review: O'Reilly and Associates has yet another feather in their cap with this outstanding book. The text is clear and consise. Everything you need to know about CGI is explained in this book. I read this book from cover to cover in 2 days. CGI was a complete mystery to me. I thought it was going to be something complex based on all of the hype. It turns out that CGI is very simple if explained properly, which this book most definitely does. Now that I am programming CGI on a routine basis, I find myself referencing this book often. The only negative for this book (this is REALLY being picky) is that the examples are written exclusively in Perl. In fact, if you don't know the basics of Perl, I recommend you consult one of the two outstanding O'Reilly and Associates books on Perl first. While I acknowledge that Perl is the easiest and most popular language to use for CGI development, I would have preferred a stronger discussion using C/C++ for those of us looking for extra efficiency in our developed programs. With a little extra time and energy, all of the examples in the book could be written in each of the popular CGI languages: Perl, C, C++, TCL, and VB. If a second edition were to be published with the examples in multiple languages and a companion CD containing these examples, my rating for this book would be an 11 for sure!
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Summary: An excellent introduction to the backdoor of Web publishing
Review: Shishir Gundavaram shines as O'Reilly's latest author inthe best introduction available on CGI programming, the"back-end" of Web site creation for the internet. Gundavaram begins his work with a detailed description of the CGI protocols and how they interrelate to web programming. Using Perl 5.0, one of many languages available for CGI programming, Gundavaram quickly moves on to discuss the creation of interactive forms on the Web, linking these forms to available databases of information, and making the client's browser remember information about a user from session to session using Netscape's "cookie" technology. Finally, Gundavaran includes information about testing CGI scripts and on increasing their security, certainly two important aspects when using potentially dangerous programs on internet-accessable web machines. Perhaps the best aspect of Gundavaran's work is its emphasis on examples. From guestbooks to games, Gundavaran shows how easy it is to increase interactivity on a web site using CGI and forms. Overall, Gundavaran's creation is a information-packed, no- nonsense reference and tutorial guide to CGI programming.
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Summary: good
Review: This book is a waste. It has about 2 chapters of any real value. I'd recommend O'Reilly's excellent "Learning Perl" by Schwartz and Christiansen. It has as much useful information in its CGI chapters as the entire "CGI..." book. And you really have to know Perl anyway to understand the "CGI..." book. So start there and see what happens.
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Summary: Good Introduction to CGI
Review: This is an excellent book. I'd recommend it to anyone who is getting started in CGI programming. It will not teach you Perl; for that I used O'Reilly's "Programming perl" while I read through this book's examples. For CGI programming, however, this book does its job very well.I noticed another review that said that code in this book didn't work. I've actually used code from this book in a half-dozen sites now, and it worked fine. More importantly, the code was well-enough explained that I've modified it over and over again to do what I needed.I still pull this book out every so often, and a few of my friends come by my house and read it. It's a very useful tool for anyone who wants to get started with CGI programming.
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