Is perl a good choice for CGI ?

[xander]

I want to write code to interact with web pages using cgi scripts (a few fields to enter and a button to press for submitting). I've done a reasonable amount of C++ and Perl programming, but nothing internet related before. Any pointers to relevant help sources would be very appreciated, all I seem to be getting in my searches is how to do server side stuff, not how to automate the client side or interactions with the server.

Originally posted as a Categorized Question.

[swiftone]

The most classic answer is CGI.pm. This is a module that does most of the overhead of interacting with the web. Perl is perfect for CGI programming because such things are so often text-based (one of perl's strengths), require quick development (ditto), and flexibility (yup).

I'd recommend you look at O'Reilly's CGI Programming with Perl as a starting point. It's pretty basic, but thorough.

(CGI is used for receiving input from users, LWP for sending and requesting pages).

If you need to parse a lot of HTML, check out HTML::Parser, and The Perl Journal article about it in the current issue. (pay subscription) (Article is recommended, because the HTML::Parser documentation assumes you know what it does and how)

[infoninja]

I'd also highly reccomend Official Guide to Programming with CGI.pm by Lincoln Stein (the author of CGI.pm) -- it's come in very handy quite a few times.

[antihec]

look into the LWP:: things at CPAN (there's also Bundle::LWP or libwww)...
HTH

[iceboxkid]

perl still the best cgi language, most free website offer cgi using perl. So, just learn perl for cgi, PHP is good but still not the best.

Originally posted as a Categorized Answer.