February 1998
Scripting Your Web Site
Dynamic Web Pages with PHP3
By Rasmus Lerdorf
PHP, or Professional Home Page, is a freely available, HTML-embedded scripting language that allows you to create specialized HTML tags, embed scripts, and more. While PHP is server-embedded, it doesn't suffer from the performance problems associated with CGI scripts.
A CGI Framework in Python
By A. M. Kuchling
Many developers find themselves rewriting things like error-handling code each time a new script is required. So Andrew created a CGI framework that's simple to use and can easily be extended and customized to your needs.
Scripting Web Pages with VBScript
By Gary Cornell
VBScript sports several advantages over JavaScript, including its lack of case sensitivity, quick learning curve, and event-driven programming model that parallels Dynamic HTML. Gary walks you through Microsoft's proprietary scripting language and shows how you can put it to work.
C O L U M N S :
Webmaster's Domain
As Web sites battle to provide advertisers with more demographic data, visitors may be surprised to find out how much of their personal information can be gleaned. Lincoln D. Stein describes how sites gather demographics and shows how you can protect yourself.
Visual Designer
Rollovers, screen graphics that change when the cursor rolls over them, allow artists and Web publishers to personalize their Web-site designs. Lynda Weinman shows you how.
Doing Justice to the Web
As users expect more content, service providers are turning to content-licensing arrangements to fill the void. Catherine Sansum Kirkman discusses the key provisions of a content-license agreement and covers some common promotional and linking arrangements.
Virtual Worlds
As Andrea L. Ames points out, navigating a pure 3D virtual space is often confusing, and incorporating text within a navigation system can be difficult. She combines VRML with HTML to get the best of both worlds.
Programming with Perl
In copying a hierarchy of Web pages for a friend, Randal L. Schwartz finds that while the pages remain intact, hyperlinks can break. Our Perl wizard conjures up a script to translate absolute and relative links.
Java Alley
As Java programs become more complex, some programmers find a formal methodology helps to manage larger projects. This month, Bruce Eckel discusses the ins and outs of object-oriented design and analysis.
D E P A R T M E N T S :
Script Junkie
If you thought Java couldn't write to disk, you may want to think again. Carl Dreher shows how you can use JavaScript to bridge the gap.
Lab Note
More than just a graphical editor, Visual JavaScript allows you to reuse existing scripts in other Web applications. Emily Vander Veer examines Netscape's new offering, including its component model and user interface, and shows how to design, assemble, and test a distributed Web application using predefined components.
Web Enabled
This month, Frankie James goes beyond screen reader technology to discuss her work with sound markings and voice changes, which act as audio interfaces to HTML for use by the blind and visually impaired.
The Home Page
Editor-in-Chief, Michael Floyd is "Introducing The Hoover Operating System."
News & Notes
DHTML Tool War Begins; Pictorius Ships iNet Developer 3.0 for Win 95/NT.
The Last Page
Michael Swaine tells the story of "Willy Wonka and the Eyeball Factory."
