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Re: CGI.pm is dead, long live CGI.pm

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From:
Johan Vromans
Date:
May 28, 2013 07:35
Subject:
Re: CGI.pm is dead, long live CGI.pm
Message ID:
m2mwrf5zgg.fsf@phoenix.squirrel.nl
Aristotle Pagaltzis <pagaltzis@gmx.de> writes:

> • CGI is not the same as CGI.pm. You don’t have to be using CGI.pm if
> you are doing CGI – many of us have done it with nothing in the past,
> or you can use something else than CGI.pm to do CGI.

Yes.

> • CGI is not the only deployment option and indeed if you are running
> a web app rather than adding a guestbook or some such into a mostly
> static web site, then it’s certainly not the best one. But it remains
> *a* deployment option that can sometimes be easier than others.

Yes.

> In both of these senses, Plack has you covered.

Plack is an excellent framework for writing web applications. But if you
want something quick and easy (your guestbook suggestion is a good
example) it's overkill.

>> If I'd want a trivial web app that shows me yesterday's SinFest comic,
>> I'd use CGI.pm and 10-20 lines of Perl code. It would work on every
>> web host that has Perl. What would be your approach?
>
> You can write a script using Plack that you can then deploy as a CGI –
> as one among any number of deployment options.

My 10-20 lines of Perl code will work on every web host that has Perl.

Your Plack solution requires install of a huge collection of modules,
including a lot of XS modules. The last time I tried to install Plack
and Task::Plack (Fedora 17, with pristine 5.16.3) it bailed out after
having installed some 90 modules.

I'm sure I could make it going, but this does not classify as a
something quick and easy.

> It’s all so, so, so much better and cleaner and saner than CGI.pm ever
> could be. Why would we be so cruel as to foist that relic on any
> newbie?

Because it works?

Remember, we all program Perl but occasionally a simple shell script
will do the job.

-- Johan

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