RE: CGI Fact Finding Mission (Need Input)

[boldt@xxxxxxxxxx]

Well, I'm certainly no CGI expert, but I have picked up
a few tricks.

Brad wrote:
>You can use Persistent CGI.  But, I prefer to use my own method of
>Persistence.  When a user signs on to the sight, I'll generate an "ID"
>number and pop it into a cookie on their machine.  Then for each page I
>retrieve the value of that cookie.  If it's not there, direct them to the
>first page.  You could also pass this value as a Query String evironment
>variable throughout the process and this would would just the same.

Cookies are a controversial subject.  Some say they're
safe, but others point out that advertisers use them to
track the movements of people through the web.

I tend to be suspicious, so although I enable cookies on
my own browsers, I have the cookies file linked to
/dev/null.  Thus, any site that requires cookies will let
me in, but the cookies get filed in the "bit bucket".


>If you're an RPG shop, don't take on a new project to learn Java, IMHO.

Why not?  Java is worth learning even for one project.
I've said before that learning Java is a great way to
improve your RPG programming.

(Java is quite useful on the server-side.  Never count
on it being available on the client.)


>Javascript, though, you should learn and can learn on the way.

IMHO, don't bother with JavaScript.  Some of us run our
browsers with JavaScript disabled.  You've seen those
annoying popup ad windows generated from the free web
page services like GeoCities, right?  Turn off JavaScript
and that nonsense goes away.

If you require JavaScript to navigate through your pages,
you may impress some people, but you'll also piss off
those of us who keep JavaScript turned off.


>Learn Java
>on your spare time (what's that?) and then later you may be able to
>incorporate it.  I prefer not to try and learn something on mission
critical
>projects.  Perl, you won't need that if you're using RPG for CGI.

Well, you can always use a hammer to drive in a screw.
Personally, I cringe whenever I see a CGI program written
in RPG.  Perl is so much nicer for CGI.  There are even
packages available in Perl that make it easier to create
web pages.  But, hey, if RPG works for you, who am I to
criticize.

Cheers!  Hans

Hans Boldt, ILE RPG Development, IBM Toronto Lab, boldt@ca.ibm.com


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