Lesson 12

Intro to server-side scripting

UNIX shell: A program running on a Linux server is invoked by sending data through the URL: the part following the "?" sometimes called the query string. If you click on the link, then add "?some text of your choice" after the URL.

Echoing a query string -- what follows the ? in the URL

marblestuff/~me/testecho?try this out

#! /bin/sh echo "Content-type: text/html" echo echo echo $1 date

A bit of PHP -- the user inputs data; the server charts the data by creating new images, on-the-fly.

Random crosswords -- five letter words which happen to fit together in a crossword puzzle are found and assembled.

Translation -- Some rather sparse foreign language dictionaries are queried for translations of English words into Portuguese, Spanish, German, etc. Let me know if you find larger public-domain bilingual dictionaries.

Fancier client-side stuff:

quasi-application 1 -- Meta-Browser: JavaScript is used to capture a sequence of locally mounted pages into a timed slide show. It's sort of like PowerPoint, only web-based.

quasi-application 2 -- Animator: The user is allowed to incorporate a series of image files into a timed animation. The JavaScript to run the animation is produced as output.

A simplistic view of spiders Various spiders move around the screen quasi-randomly; some eat others.