using slashes is an old way of separating parameters in urls. it should still work as long as apache can quickly grasp that "directory" is a cgi. so if "directory" is a scriptalias in apache config, and exists as an executable script, then it will work
btw this question has nothing to do with perl per se. check doc/faq/forum at apache.org
the hardest line to type correctly is: stty erase ^H