Frankly, I would be rather wary of using those. It's an unfortunate fact that 99% of cgi programs on the web roll their own parameter parsers, don't use strict, and so on. If one were to suggest a premade solution, make it from someone a with better coding habits. Heck, one might even learn some Perl in the process..
Update: Toned down the negativity about the above-mentioned URL, on the basis that there is a non-zero chance that at least one of them might be written correctly.
perl -pe '"I lo*`+$^X$\"$]!$/"=~m%(.*)%s;$_=$1;y^+*`^ ve^#$&V"+@( NO CARRIER'
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The quality of scripts there is about the same as those listed in CGI Resource Index. Of course, they're not all bad (You'll find NMS listed there for example), but you should exercise caution wherever you download your copy-paste scripts from (including perlmonks).
I don't mean that in a bad way, but it's prudent.
Simon Flack ($code or die)
$,=reverse'"ro_';s,$,\$,;s,$,lc ref sub{},e;$,
=~y'_"' ';eval"die";print $_,lc substr$@,0,3;
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I agree with everything Chmrr and $code or die said. Caution and prudence is absolutely necessary when selecting a script.
$code or die", thank you for noticing that at least some decent stuff was in there (although they are pretty much buried in the bad stuff). Special pains were taken to try and include as much exemplary work as possible. Somewhat understandably, the authors of these excellent scripts don't seem to add their listing to any script resource type sites. So when I see them, I add them myself. However, I'll be more cautious in blanketly recommending a resource site as a first step in the future.
Chmrr, thank you for pointing out merlyn’s column. I agree that his Web Techniques column is one of the first places a person should start looking for a solid CGI script. To his credit, Chmrr was already either aware of the specific article or took the time to look (my bad for neither – my apologies to Anonymous Monk).
Which brings me to a rather amusing story in itself.
On various occasions, I recommended merlyn’s Web Techniques columns to people asking for an excellent program that does x. One person in particular admitted precious little knowledge of Perl programming. After he read the recommended column, I offered basic instructions on how to install the file. He was excited and thanked me profusely.
The next day, I received a frantic email asking what the following meant:
Syntax error at test.cgi line 1, near "="
Execution of test.cgi aborted due to compilation errors.
He simply copied the code from the column (line numbers included) and uploaded it. Yes, this was for real :)
Perhaps the moral of this story was that I should have given the guy both the column and column listing urls (the code listing isn’t linked from the column, only from the WT home page).
So, Anonymous Monk, the code that Chmrr (and now, I) recommend is at http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/col05.listing.txt. The column discussing the program is at http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/WebTechniques/col05.html. | [reply]
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