Funny, I was just writing about this last night. CGI is a protocol that
enables communication between programs running in separate processes, viz.,
an HTTP daemon and logical extensions to it that do independent processing
tasks and (optionally) return results.
The main difference between CGI and servlet/JSP APIs is similar to that
between CGI and web server APIs. With a web server API like NSAPI or ISAPI,
you are interacting with the server process via a native interface,
optimally by running in-process, in the same process space as the server.
With servlets/JSP, it's the same deal--you write programs that run
in-process with the container, and that interface directly with the server's
exposed API. It's just a much closer integration between the core HTTP
server and its extensions. CGI and server-side APIs such as JSP, Servlet,
NSAPI, and ISAPI are all about extending and customizing the functionality
of servers, but doing it in different ways.
Scott Stirling
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gladwell, Ricardo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2000 4:32 AM
Subject: Re: My boss needs convincing..
> And what are JSP and ASP pages if not dynamically generated web content
> produced by an external program from an HTTP server? If they are not CGI
> then what are they, just out of interest?
>
> --
> Ricardo Gladwell, Web Developer
> Demon Internet, Westhumble House,
> Dorking Business Park, Dorking. RH4 1HJ
> Tel: +44 (0)1306 732 356
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Geert Van Damme [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> > Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2000 12:52 PM
> > To: Gladwell, Ricardo
> > Subject: RE: My boss needs convincing..
> >
> >
> > No it's not (is that a raindrop? ;-)
> > CGI is in fact just a specification and it's true, PERL
> > scripts can use this
> > to serve dynamic web pages. but servlets, JSP, ASP are
> > certainly NOT CGI!
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Some relevant FAQs on JSP/Servlets can be found at:
http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/faq.html
http://www.esperanto.org.nz/jsp/jspfaq.html
http://www.jguru.com/jguru/faq/faqpage.jsp?name=JSP
http://www.jguru.com/jguru/faq/faqpage.jsp?name=Servlets
