Jonathan Hagey
CONTENTS
Appendix
A
Appendix
B
Appendix
C
Appendix
D
Appendix
E
Appendix
F
HTML conversion by :
M/s. LeafWriters (India) Pvt. Ltd.
Website : http://leaf.stpn.soft.net
e-mail :
leafwriters@leaf.stpn.soft.net
Acquisitions Editor | Suzanne Anthony
|
Development Editor | Paula Hardin
|
Copy Editors | Margo Hill/Kayla Sussell
|
Project Coordinator | Ami Knox
|
Technical Reviewer | Adam Evans
|
Cover Design and Illustration | Megan Gandt
|
Book Design | Paper Crane Graphics, Berkeley
|
Word Processing | Howard Blechman
|
Page Layout | Janet Piercy
|
Indexer | Valerie Robbins
|
Copyright © 1996 by Macmillan Computer Publishing
USA. All rights reserved.
PART OF A CONTINUING SERIES
All other product names and services identified throughout this
book are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
companies. They are used throughout this book in editorial fashion
only and for the benefit of such companies. No such uses, or the
use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other
affiliation with the book.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, or
stored in a database or retrieval system, or transmitted or distributed
in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission
of Macmillan Computer Publishing USA, except as permitted by the
Copyright Act of 1976, and the End-User License Agreement at the
back of this book, and except that program listings may be entered,
stored, and executed in a computer system.
EXCEPT FOR THE LIMITED WARRANTY COVERING THE PHYSICAL DISK(S)
PACKAGED WITH THIS BOOK AS PROVIDED IN THE END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
AT THE BACK OF THIS BOOK, THE INFORMATION AND MATERIAL CONTAINED
IN THIS BOOK ARE PROVIDED "AS IS," WITHOUT WARRANTY
OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION
ANY WARRANTY CONCERNING THE ACCURACY, ADEQUACY, OR COMPLETENESS
OF SUCH INFORMATION OR MATERIAL OR THE RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED
FROM USING SUCH INFORMATION OR MATERIAL. NEITHER MACMILLAN COMPUTER
PUBLISHING USA NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY CLAIMS
ATTRIBUTABLE TO ERRORS, OMISSIONS, OR OTHER INACCURACIES IN THE
INFORMATION OR MATERIAL CONTAINED IN THIS BOOK, AND IN NO EVENT
SHALL MACMILLAN COMPUTER PUBLISHING USA OR THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE
FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF SUCH INFORMATION OR MATERIAL.
ISBN 1-56276-420-9
Acknowledgments
There are several people I wish to thank and acknowledge as critical
in making this book possible. Without their efforts I would have
had nothing to write about-so thank you all, very much.
Thanks to Larry Wall for creating Perl, Clark Williams and Dean
Troyer for porting Perl 4 to Windows NT, Dick Hardt, Doug Lankshear,
Greg Lypowy, and Wei-Yuen Tan for porting Perl 5 to Windows NT,
Ziff-Davis Press for taking a chance on a first time author (from
Canada even!), Hewlett-Packard for lending me a Netserver 5/100
LF to test the scripts for this book, Microsoft for getting me
Windows NT Server 3.51, Netscape for the use of their browser,
Navigator, Crombie Machines Inc., Suzanne Anthony and Paula Hardin
(two very appreciated publishing princesses), Salmon Nensi, for
his quick mind and nerves of steel, Margo Hill and Kayla Sussell,
for their quick fingers, Bettina Hagey, for her patience, love
and understanding, Jonathan Appavoo and Christopher Davedson,
for moral support, Adam Evans, for being the right person in the
right place at the right time, Larry Waterhouse, Magdalene and
Xavier, for not sticking their grilled cheese sandwiches in the
CD-ROM drive, and finally my parents, Donald and Nancy Hagey,
for making sure I was fed while I wrote this book.
Before we get right into Perl I want to tell you a little story
about myself.
Back in high school I was on the wrestling team. I liked wrestling
practice, but I didn't really like the competitions, and I would
get this terrible attack of butterflies in my stomach the day
of each and every match. I would suffer through them, telling
myself that over time I would get used to the feeling, and maybe
they would eventually go away altogether. Then, before yet another
match when my insides felt like I was on a roller coaster, I asked
the most experienced member of the team if he had ever had these
nervous attacks. He told me that he had been wrestling for seven
years, and if anything, his anxiety before a match had gotten
worse. Needless to say I stopped my wrestling career the next
day, and started in on computers full time.
I tell you this little anecdote because often we in the computer
industry are learning new things. And even though it's not wrestling,
that nervous "twitch" can come back.
The first reaction I experience when I have to learn something
new (especially when it comes to computers) is usually fear. Even
though I've been working in the computer industry for years, and
have mastered some pretty tricky applications and operating systems,
I get that little queasy feeling when I have to learn something
new. I'm still afraid of looking stupid; of feeling lost (again);
of not being able to find the information I need to get my work
done on time. This is a common reaction that many of you may share
with me when it comes to learning new material. That is why I
have tried in this book to take what anxiety I can out of learning
Perl for CGI.
This panicky feeling is also one of the reactions the creators
of Perl took into account when designing and refining their programming
language. Perl is a powerful computer language that is accessible
for use by a wide range of people. While this may not have been
the original aim of Perl, it clearly could have been.
Take your time with this book, gather other books and resources
that will inform you about your system, network, and software.
Only with an informed, full picture will you truly achieve your
programming goals.
-Jonathan Hagey,
Paris, 1996