Official Guide to Programming with CGI.pm
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Spotlight Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 4.18Customer Rating: 3
Summary: Information is invaluable but organization needs work
Comment: This is an invaluable book for using an invaluable library module (if you do CGI coding). There is absolutely no substitute for CGI.pm. However, this book is very frustrating to use because the Reference Guide section is organized into different weird categories instead of just listing all the functions in CGI.pm in alphabetical order (like in Perl books, for example). Therefore the reader has to try to figure out what category a function in the module belongs in in order to look it up. Very very aggravating! In fact I trained a group of developers in using CGI.pm and many of them avoided using it because it takes so long to find what you're looking for in the reference section of the book. I am hoping for a new edition of the book SOON with this problem corrected. The material is invaluable, but I have to give three stars because of poor organization.
Customer Rating: 4
Summary: This book is a necessity but the examples don't all work
Comment: I must confess that I could do virtually none of the programming that I do without Lincoln's fine work, but it's sometimes frustrating with so many broken examples.
Once you figure out the syntax, you'll be OK. There's a lot of easy-to-find reference. Make sure you test very small sections of code on their own and insert it into your programs when you get it working. Then refer to your working programs (copy & paste) when you make others.
Again, much credit needs to be given to Mr Stein, but Paul DuBois' Book MySql and Perl For The Web explains CGI.pm much better (you'll still need Stein's book if you're going to be serious about CGI) with examples that really,really, work, extreme attention to detail, and incredible organization.
Customer Rating: 5
Summary: Wow, incredible high-level power in this module.
Comment: The author has done a wonderful job of explaining how to use the CGIpm module. If you understand the basics of perl, you should be able to go through the bulk of this book. And with just a slight acquaintance with Perl references and anonmous list, you'll be surprised how quick and easy this is to master. This book puts other CGI books to shame because other books shy away from discussing all the cool functions in CGI.pm.