[Tutor] [Almost OT]Getting Started with CGI

[Alan Colburn]

Hi all --

I'm quite interested in learning about Python and the
web, developing web based forms that send the data
people input on to a spreadsheet, etc. My problem is
that I don't know a whole lot about CGI and I'm not
sure my server will run Python scripts. (I'm quite
comfortable with HTML, though.)

Checking out the documentation for my campus' server I
find: "The campus webserver permits running of CGI
scripts through CGIwrap, which assures that your
scripts run under your own account. Although other
languages could potentially be used, just about
everyone uses Perl for CGI scripts. You may either
import scripts that you find out on the Internet or
write them yourself. To enable them to run you must
create a "cgi-bin" directory under your htdocs
directory and make sure that the permissions allow
public read and execute access but not write access."

I'm comfortable with all the things mentioned in this
paragraph. The problem, again, is whether I can set
things up to run Python scripts. Do I need to get one
of my campus network buddies to download and set up
some sort of Python module? Is there a way for me to
install files in my own cgi-bin directory, allowing me
to be in control and run the scripts? (The campus uses
some flavor of UNIX; I'm not up on Unix--I'm a Windows
guy--but if I tell you it's  "IRIX64 swift 6.5" will
that help?)

Bottom line: me and Python? OK. HTML? OK. CGI and/or
UNIX? Not so OK. :-)

Any suggestions about where to start? ... As always,
thank you!

Al C.

p.s. I've seen a couple of the tutorials on CGI, and
look forward to reading them--after taking care of the
starting point(s) above.

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