Sidebar: perl

perl is an interpreted scripting language that features fast string manipulation, access to almost all UNIX system library functions, security tracing for suid programs, and automatic dynamic memory allocation for arrays. The source will look very familiar to C programmers with a splash of Basic and REXX thrown in. Since perl is interpreted, a CGI author doesn't have to go through a compilation cycle to see results. perl is easy to read and modify, making it ideal for prototyping.

perl seems to be the default CGI scripting language for most HTML/CGI authors. For system administration CGI programs, I advocate the use of perl. For large-scale CGI program development, use C/C++.