PERL,PHP,CGI

Fri Jun 23 06:37:04 PDT 2000

Hi all,

Thanks to John for the intro. to PHP, Perl, and CGI.  My $0.02 worth...

I would like to emphasise that PHP is a powerful scripting language. 
Although PHP is well known for its database support, it does contain a
suite of inherent functions along with the capability to create
user-defined functions, classes, and objects (to name a few).  The PHP
interpreter can be included in a web server as a module or executed as a
separate CGI binary.  We have were initially turned on to PHP to
establish database connections with PostgeSQL, but are now using it for
a host of web-based programming endeavours.  

If you want more details on PHP and its capabilities, check out:

http://www.php.net/manual/

Cheers,
Jim

John Hockaday wrote:
> 
> I am sending this to the list so that Bertha doesn't get inundated with
> replies.  Please ignore this message if you know about PHP, PERL and
> CGI.
> 
> Hi Bertha,
> 
> There are several differences between PHP, PERL and CGI.
> 
> Simply:
> 
>         PHP is like Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) in which it uses
>         tags to build a template that will allow access to a database
>         through the World Wide Web (WWW).  It is very simple to use as
>         you only need to know about HTML and understand the concepts of
>         templates and accessing databases.
> 
>         PERL is a scripting language that can do almost anything that
>         any other programming language can do.  It is really easy to
>         use because you don't have to declare variable types, you just
>         use them.  It doesn't have some Object Oriented (OO) features
>         as in JAVA and C++ etc. but it is still very powerful. There are
>         so many PERL packages that do specific things you usually don't
>         have to do much programming other than calling these packages
>         and using them to suit yourself.  Packages are usually located
>         at the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN) site (
>         http://www.perl.com/CPAN/ ) and PERL can be accessed via (
>         http://www.perl.com/ )
> 
>         CGI (Common Gateway Interface) is a way of a WWW server
>         delivering dynamic HTML pages to a WWW browser via Hypertext
>         Transfer Protocol (HTTP).  It can be written in any programming
>         language as it is just an executable that runs when an HTML
>         form is submitted.  (There're other ways but this is a simple
>         explanation to get you started.)  You must have a WWW server
>         set up on a machine that allows access to it via HTTP and
>         usually a dedicated port such as port 80.
> 
>         HTTP is a "stateless" connection.  That is, the WWW browser
>         connects to the WWW server, the server does what it is asked to
>         so and then closes the connection to the WWW browser.  The next
>         time the same WWW browser contacts the WWW server the WWW
>         server treats it as a completely new connection.
> 
> You are probably wondering what to use to suit your needs.
> 
>         With all of these you will need to have a good idea of HTML or
>         a very good book on HTML as is seems that your need is to
>         deliver HTML pages.
> 
>         To deliver HTML pages you need a WWW server.  Apache is free
>         and good.
> 
>         If you just want to access a database and present them on the
>         WWW and you don't have programming skills then PHP may be the
>         answer.  It will handle the CGI part of the WWW accesses and
>         via your templates it will present information accessed to the
>         database.  It is simple but limited.
> 
>         If you know how to program then PERL is for you.  It allows you
>         to access a database via the DBI package and allows you to
>         build CGI scripts via the CGI package.  Lots of other packages
>         will help you with other bits and pieces like the IO package
>         for accessing files etc.  Just remember to look at CPAN before
>         you try to do anything as it may already have been done for
>         you.
> 
>         If you have complicated WWW server needs and need to keep on
>         passing information back and forwards from the WWW browser to
>         the WWW server then you should be looking at Java servlets.
>         These make a "stateful" connection and so know what the WWW
>         browser has asked from a previous WWW page.  It is faster than
>         CGI because it doesn't have to keep on passing information
>         about the previous WWW connection.  Java is a full OO except
>         that it doesn't allow multiple inheritance.  However, you can
>         get around this by inheriting from one class and then
>         implementing from many other classes.
> 
> You will have to match you skills to what you want to do.
> 
> I have given a very simple explanation. I hope that I have correctly
> interpreted what you were asking.  If not, then I am sorry for this
> lengthy explanation.
> 
> Good luck. ;-)
> 
> Johnh
> 
> > Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 13:16:25 -0700 (PDT)
> > From: bertha amalia serrato de la cruz <bertha_bonita at yahoo.com>
> > Subject: PERL,PHP,CGI
> > To: MAPSERVER <mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu>
> > MIME-Version: 1.0
> > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
> >
> > hello
> >
> > i need know the diference betweem PHP,PERL and CGI
> > what's better?..
> > where can i found information?, i would like learn PHP
> > and PERL but the link in the mapserver page " not
> > found"
> >
> > what is more comfortable for using wtih mapserver?
> > Why?
> >
> > i'm waiting for a soon answer
> >
> > =====
> > *--*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
> >     Bertha A. Serrato
> >     bserrato at cicese.mx
> >     CICESE,División de Ciencias de la Tierra.
> >     Ensenada, B.C.
> > *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
> >
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