JavaScript Vs. CGI Script

I am new to the whole Internet development field (have been a programmer for 12 years now though) and I was wondering if someone can tell me the differences (if any) and recommend what to use.

Can JavaScripts be executed on my pc or do I have to install it on the server? (as I understand it, with CGI/Perl I have to install my script on the server in order for it to work.

Any help will be welcomed.

Thanks,
Meirav Morse
SoftNet Corp.
SoftNet001@aol.com

javascript is running on the client side (so from the visitor's pc). where cgi-scripts run from the server side. advantage is that you don't need to have cgi-access, or knowledge of "complicated" languages like perl. disadvantage is that it is browser-dependent (where cgi-scripts are not, since they run on the server). older browsers may not support javascript, and in newer browsers you can simply turn off javascript-support.

what sort of scripts you should use depends on the perpose.. some things simply cannot be done with cgi-scripts, other things cannot be done with javascript.

for cgi-scripts i'd go for the Perl language, it's a completely idiot language (that was my first impression, i was used to c++ programming) but it's not THAT hard to learn once you get the basics. if you've been coding c/c++ or some familiar language, you won't have much troubles learning javascript, there are tutors available all over the net.

SoftNet,

What type of web server are you using? (Apache, Enterprise Application Server, etc.)

A simpler and faster alternative to CGI scripting would be PHP ( http://www.php.net )

PHP can run as a module of Apache. Therefore, it is part of the same process as the http-server; whereas with CGI, it's a bit slower because your Perl scripts run as a separate process. PHP is also easier syntactically.

If you're using a web server like Netscape's, you can use JavaScript for the server-side scripting as well as the client-side.

For an example of PHP scripting:
http://www.wernhart.priv.at/php/