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Perl @ Web Programming
Programming Shed : Programmer Store & Resources |
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Perl Index - Perl Book :
Official Guide to Programming With Cgi.Pm
by Lincoln Stein Paperback: 320 pages Publisher: John Wiley & Sons ISBN: 0471247448; 1 edition (April 3, 1998) CGI.pm, a Perl library for writing CGI scripts, delivers elegant solutions for using and updating Web forms. The author, Lincoln Stein, realized the need for a clean and simple way to manage forms and--as a columnist for the Perl Journal, a scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and a Web-based software author--created that solution. He's (refreshingly) humble about this creative process, explaining that it took him a few steps until he realized the key to this HTML/Perl hybrid: simplicity. The CGI.pm standard allows the site manager to separate data from its HTML markup for use in CGI forms. For example, all the elements in a short drop-down menu of vegetables can be placed in one array, changing this: - peas - broccoli - cabbage to this: li(['peas','broccoli,'cabbage']) to be used later throughout a Perl script. The Official Guide to Programming with CGI.pm is geared toward a reader who is familar enough with Perl to have used modules and knowledgeable about HTML and Web-site design. Stein uses CGI.pm for tables, drop-down menus, guest books, single-page or multipart forms, image maps, and cookies. The author of both the book and Perl library function, Stein provides ample discussion of all of these areas, along with strong code examples. The book ends with a verbose reference guide detailing all of CGI.pm's functions and features, grouped both alphabetically and by topic. The use of CGI.pm requires a mind shift for Web site managers, but it's one worth making. Instead of tags for 'input' and 'select', CGI.pm uses statements such as "checkbox ()" and "textfield ()," allowing documents to be read easily and updated quickly. --Jennifer Buckendorff Ingram: With his one-of-a-kind scripting shortcut tool--CGI.pm--Lincoln Stein is a household name in CGI circles. In this book he provides programmers and Web developers with information on how to use and customize his unique tool that cuts scripting time in half. Customer Reviews Reviewer: Jason C. Levine from Santa Monica, CA United States If you write CGI scripts in perl and are not taking advantage of cgi.pm, then you're doing things the hard way. Written to take the tedium out of scripting, the module allows you to use easy to remember shortcuts to code some of the more difficult things in perl. Cookie setting and retrival is a snap, as is allowing users to upload files, and more. For advanced programmers, the object oriented method is supported and also very easy to use. The book is easy to follow and contains some illustrative examples that are also available on a companion website. My one and only complaint is the price of the book: it seems a little steep given that most of the material in there is available on the web in one form or another for free. If you don't want to take the time printing and compiling, then this is an excellent manual that will soon sport bookmarks and highlights throughout. Reviewer: Joseph N. Hall from Chandler, Arizona I've enjoyed this latest book of Lincoln's, and recommend it highly. This is an interesting book with many good examples. I am happily using it as a text in my Programming the World Wide Web classes. This is one of very, very few books on CGI programming that use fluent Perl (Perl 5 constructs in particular) *and* up-to-date language features (CGI.pm, obviously). The only drawback of the book, and the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars, is that I think the typography is lousy. In particular, the font for the code samples is too light, and the excessive leading in general makes the book harder to read. The book has its share of first printing typos, but then again, mine had them too, so I can hardly complain about that. :-) Good work, Lincoln! Reviewer: Vendelin Toomas from Tallinn, n/a Estonia I've bought this book basically not to burn my eyes reading man pages from the screen. The text itself is good and is exactly what the title tells you - a printed user's manual to (most) popular Perl module. Now I have to ask: how on earth can a book be designed as poorly as that? Whoever the designer is, I'd strongly recommed him(her?) to buy "The Form of the Book" by Jan Tchicold (hope I spelled it correctly). Reviewer: stormygirl from Peaster, TX United States I bought this book thinking it would tell me everything I could ever want to know about CGI.pm. Well, it doesn't. While the book provides a good starting point for anyone using the CGI.pm module for the first time, it offers few specifics about functions and the examples are hard to follow. I found a "better study of the module in: The Perl Black Book," a hefty and rather expensive book, but far more useful than this one. If you only want to print a one-page form using CGI.pm, then this book may be for you. If your needs are more complex, spend the money on a better text. |
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