The CGI Book

Rating:
Summary: The definitive starter's guide to CGI Programming
Review: Mr. Weinman did an excellent job explaining how to program using CGI. I purchased this book in 1996. His book was one the first I had seen that gave examples in C, Perl, Unix Shell, and pseudo code. This was very helpful. The examples were complete and simple. I read the book in one setting. I teach Internet technologies to summer students and I use this book as the core reference. I recommend this book anyone who wishes to begin CGI programming. I am anxiously awaiting the 2nd edition.

Rating:
Summary: The definitive starter's guide to CGI Programming
Review: Overall, I found this book pretty clear and readable. It does a good job of being understandable to the novice without being too boring for the more experienced. I was also happy to see C well represented. (I may have to learn Perl sooner or later, but this book doesn't force you.) There were a few places where I lost the flow and was left wondering why the author was telling me this.

The cover is fairly plain, but the author makes up for it with a good selection of thought-provoking chapter introduction quotes.

Rating:
Summary: This book reads well and all, but isn't a complete reference
Review: The book has a lot of useful information for the beginner but does not work a complete reference. Too many things just are not covered. It does not cover Location vs Context-type.

Rating:
Summary: The CGI Book by William E. Weinman is Very Useful
Review: When I began to want to learn about CGI, I was a beginner computer user. In late 1997 I had bought my first computer, and was amazed at the World Wide Web, and wanted to learn how to make my own web site(s). I had no programming background other than having learned how to make html documents with the assistance of a good book or two. I wanted to learn how to do Perl and CGI. This book is one of the resources that I am very thankful for having had when I was a beginner. It helped me successfully learn. I find programming to be a challenge, because there are many complexities involved, that are potentially impossible for any author/teacher/documentation writer to forsee. The difficult struggles that I faced when learning the nature of Perl and CGI required a lot of patience for me. I would not have succeeded had I not had this book at that time. This is not the only book that helped me learn. This is one of the best. This is a very good book. It will be useful to me for a long time.