in reply to perl/cgi question: script works from unix command line, but not web page

The others are answering the code questions but I would offer reading suggestions.

Perl is a fun language but with any language there is a certain way of doing things. Your code shows that you are a Microsoft coder and that will get a few of the Perl elite types gnashing their teeth ;-)

If you seriously want to learn Perl I would suggest a few books

Beginning Perl by Simon Cozens. Very good coverage of Perl at a beginning level.

The O'Reilly Llama book "Learning Perl" is also a good place to start.

Writing CGI Applications with Perl by Kevin Meltzer

Finally if you want to play with Win32. Win32 Perl Programming by Dave Roth!

Good Luck

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Re: Re: Stupid newbie question - perl/cgi
by geoffhanna (Initiate) on Apr 03, 2002 at 03:56 UTC
    I have been in the (lucrative) wilderness of windows for a few years but my origins are c/c++/unix. I just like whitespace.

    And I get enough win32 at work (grin)

    Thanks for the tips. I am used to being able to pick up a new language or feature set by walking through a simple example. Apparently my c is too rusty to help me much - I may need to work a little harder for perl than is usually the case.

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      *laugh* Enjoy the rush of learning my friend, and when you do as I did - look up at the letter to a peer that you have "re-edited" to more clearly emphasize your thoughts and realize you have just written a Perl class module instead - you will know that the "bug" has you in it's grip.  At that point, give up all hope of enjoying any other language  - because their expressive capabilities are dwarfed by the endless nuances Perl so easily allows.  The ease of rapid deployment, prototyping and support that Perl (with CPAN) offers can not be matched by any other that I have seen (after 25 years of programming) and most importantly - there are people all around that speak it and <word usage=carefully>fanatically</word> support others learning it. - people like the fine Monks of the Abbey.

      side note - when my "letter incident" happened, I had quite the blast then trying to explain why I thought it was so funny to my co-workers - only to be stared at with incomprehension.  At that point I realized, Perl is a different sort of language, and that all my C/C++ (and now C#) knowledge would only initiate the learning process for me, but was really not all that helpful at all.  Perl requires you to set aside a few preconceived notions about programming I think.



      *G*
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