CGI Programming with Perl

CGI Programming with Perl was an introductory course to Perl and its use as a CGI programming language. CGI (Common Gateway Interface) is an internet protocol for passing information back and forth between a server and client. As a server-based, scripting language, Perl is universally available and ideal for many CGI tasks.

The first thing I did was download Perl 5.004 and install it on my Win9x system. The installation was straightforward. I then added the installation binary path (E:\PERL\BIN) to my PATH environment variable in the C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Now I can write Perl code using my DOS editor in a DOS command window. I can test the code from any subdirectory at the DOS command prompt.

The first line of a Perl interpreted program is supposed to be "!# /usr/bin/perl" or the location of the Perl executable. This is unnecessary when running Perl interpreted programs in a DOS command window. It doesn't seem to make any difference. If the Perl program is going to be installed on a UNIX server, include the line and let DOS ignore it.