A CGI application can be written in any language that can process stdin and stdout, and can reference environment variables. Visual Basic and NT batch scripts can be used as well as lower-level languages such as C and C++. Once of the most popular languages used in CGI application development is the PERL programming languages. PERL is a very powerful language and has been ported to the Windows NT environment. Because PERL is often called a scripting language, many people refer to CGI applications as CGI scripts. Perl 5.0 is the supported level of our servers. WE recommend that you use PERL for your scripts due to their efficiency and compatibility. And of course you must have a .pl extension to your script.

Any script must end in .pl to ensure execution. The Perl directory address at the beginning of your script must be left at default.

If you use any other language besides PERL, please email techsupp@virginiahost.com before running it.  CGI is programming, don't be mistaken into thinking it is as easy as HTML. It isn't.  If you are going to use Perl, buy a Perl book, please. If you can't figure it out, ask us, we will do our best by email on a time permits basis. Check the listing of CGI sites on the web for assistance. Do a search at www.yahoo.com for cgi information. They have an incredible amount of sites that are dedicated to helping you set up you scripts.

The Perl Home Page: www.Perl.com/Perl/index.html
- This is the most detailed and informative listing of Perl information on the web today...

Galaxy's CGI- Common Gateway Interface
- Lots of information on CGI scripting, and the longest URL on the Web, including pointers for more information on image mapping, etc.

Julia Martinson's Collection
- a great collection of information on CGI & HTML.

O'Reilly & Associates
- Don't normally recommend books, but in the case of Perl, Unix, Linux, Scripting, etc. your might need to read-up with the best.

The Common Gateway Interface
- An introduction (with examples) to CGI scripting. One of the best sites.

Shareware CGI Scripts
- Consists of scripts for Guestbooks, Forms, and Counters. Includes some Apple programs as well.

CERN HTTPD
- Resources for image-mapping, scripts, forms, search engines, CGI, etc. Please note that this is not our server, though similar, and some of the steps (BIN references) are different.

Accessory Scripts- CERN
- Reference for forms submissions, etc. Again, the references are going to be slightly different for our server.

The processing of CGI arguments under TCL
- More information on CGI.

Accessory Scripts- CERN
- Reference for forms submissions, etc. Again, the references are going to be slightly different for our server and please refer to our FAQ documentation ion for the changes needed.

Imagemap Help Page
- Imagemaping made simple in an easy to follow guide.

HTGREP
- if you need a searchable index, this is supposed to do the trick.

NASA's 'Information on Search Tools'
- a interesting page with many ideas on solving local searching problems.

PERL
- A great language to learn in the generation of dynamic documents (on-the-fly page creation) such as forms.