CGI scripts

beginner at cgi and perl. how the heck do you implement a cgi script into an html file? was following the devshed tutorial but when i got to the cgi stuff, when i booted up the guestbook tutorial, the guestbook.html worked fine but when i pressed "sign my guestbook" it asked me to download the submit.cgi script i had just created. what's up with that?? Any help would be good.
thanx

Qin_23

it seems you haven't got perl on your server or you may need to put your cgi in cgi/bin directory.

hmmm, thanx for the help. One more question: how do i get perl on my system????

Qin_23

From the sound of it you're probably going to need to install a web server as well. There are lots of good tutorials out there that describe step by step how to set up various combinations of web server/scripting language/database server. You'll need all three if you're going to go very far with this stuff, and it's much easier to set them all up at once, than to add pieces later.

Also, for what it's worth, I'd consider PHP (or even ASP, ack - can't believe I just typed that) over Perl. I love Perl, and it's still the best tool for certain jobs, but PHP is better suited to learning web development, in my opinion.

wdn2k

Perl is an excellent choice for web development, and a perfectly good language to cut your teeth on.

If all you want to do is web development and aren't interested in learning a general scripting language, then PHP is a fine choice.

If you want to learn a general purpose scripting language, suitable for writing gui applications and automating a whole set of things, beyond the WWW, then learn perl.

Actually, learn both, start with either. You can't go wrong with perl or PHP.