Articles : Java Networking :

Introduction to Java Servlets

What About Perl or Microsoft ASP?

Although this series if about Java, it is difficult to escape the notion that other established web technologies can help you write interactive web sites. Perl is the foundation upon which many dynamic pages have been written, and Active Server Pages (ASP) from Microsoft is a close contender for Microsoft IIS Servers.

It turns out that these other technologies do have a place in the world of Web Programming. And indeed, they can provide many of the same features of Java Servlets.

Perl has been the stable of many webmasters since CGI was first implemented in Web Servers. Perl as a language is extremely easy to use and learn because it is extremely forgiving of syntax issues. The main downside for Perl is that CGI scripts written in Perl tend to be slow. There are accelerators available for both Windows and UNIX Web servers such as Apache. However, most of these accelerators are not yet cross platform.

Microsoft Active Server Pages are very similar to Perl in that the language (VBScript) is extremely easy to learn. ASPs are also written as snippets of code inside of HTML which makes it intuitive for web designers and HTML coders to pick up. In addition, they support sessions just like Java Servlets. However, the downside to ASPs is that they are generally limited to Microsoft IIS and PWS Web Servers.

The cool thing about Servlets is that you will get the advantages of a persistent Java engine on just about whatever platform you wish to run on, whether it is Windows or a flavor of UNIX. In addition, you will get additional features such as session management built in for you.

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Gunther Birznieks contributes to JavaBoutique's Web/Networking column. Gunther currently works for Barclays Capital in London, one of the leading global investment banks in Europe and has previously worked as a senior computer scientist in the Human Genome Project. Gunther is also known for writing several books on Web Programming (Perl, CGI, Java) as well as for co-creating Extropia with Selena Sol. Extropia is one of the best known public domain web programming archives Email: gunther@extropia.com.

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