To follow up to what scorpio17 said, I use HTML::Template to generate several of the pages at http://linuxgazette.net that way, for various reasons. The generator script can be run as CGI or to create output to a static file. Quoting the relevant section:

# Output everything including the header if invoked as a CGI script
if ( $0 =~ /\.cgi$/ ){
    print header;
    $fh = *STDOUT;
}
else {
    # If invoked via symlink (not ending in ".cgi"), write "mirrors.ht
+ml"
    open Mirr, ">mirrors.html" or die "Can't open mirrors.html: $!\n";
    $fh = *Mirr;
}

# print $fh start_html( "Linux Gazette - Mirrors and translations page
+" ), $t -> output, end_html;
print $fh $t -> output, end_html;
[download]

It works well (the result is at http://linuxgazette.net/mirrors.html), and has for the last five years. A fair track record. :)