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web development

Tonight’s talk: To be CGI or not to be CGI, that is the question.

A Python Program: A Python CGI Script:
Listen: you’re really not all that different than me;
you just work on a web server, whereas I can work
anywhere.
Yes. I like to think of myself as special.

Special?!? But you only work on the Web, nowhere
else. How’s that “special”?

Because all the cool stuff works on the Web these
days and I’m designed, optimized, tailored, and
engineered for the Web. Because the Web’s a cool
place, it follows that I must be cool, too. See: special.
Nonsense! The truth is that you work only on the Web
and break pretty quickly when used elsewhere. You
don’t even have control over your own I/O.
I don’t need control over my input and output. I
have a friendly web server to take care of that for
me. My input comes from the web server and my
output goes to the web server. This arrangement
allows me to concentrate on the important stuff.

Like [sniggers] generating text in the form of
HTML? That’s really taxing…
Smirk all you want; HTML makes the World Wide
Web go around and I’m a master at generating it
dynamically, on demand, and as needed. Without me,
the Web would be a pretty static place.
Oh, get over yourself! You’re a regular program,
just like me. I can generate HTML, too, I just
choose not to.
And if you did generate HTML, you’d want it
displayed somewhere…like in a browser?
I guess so…

And to do that you’d need to rely on the services of
a friendly web server, right?

Ummmm…I guess so.

Which would make you a CGI script. So, you’d be
special, too. Q.E.D.

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