Using C for CGI Programming(5)

Mar 01, 2005 By Clay Dowling

 in

• Software

You can speed up complex Web tasks while retaining the simplicity of CGI. With many useful libraries available, the jump from a scripting language to C isn't as big as you might think.

Conclusions

With the right tools and a little experience, developing CGI applications with C is nomore difficult than it is when using Perl or PHP. Now that I have the experience andthe tools, C is my preferred language for CGI applications.

C excels when the application requires more advanced processing andlong-term stability. It is not especially susceptible to failure whenserver changes are beyond your control, unlike PHP. Short ofremoving a shared library, such as libc or libmysqlclient, the Cversion of our application is hard to break. The speed of executionfor C programs makes it a clear choice when the application requiresmore complex data processing.

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Clay Dowling is the president of Lazarus Internet Development(www.lazarusid.com). In addition to programming, he enjoys brewingbeer and wine. He can be reached by e-mail atclay@lazarusid.com.