CGI vs ASP

1
CGI vs ASP
2
CGI Model
sends HTML back
request
Sends CGI to
runs the script and returns HTML
Script is stored in the script server
3
ASP Model
4
sends HTML back
request
Browser
Server
1
2
3
Sends page to
runs the script and returns HTML
ASP.dll
Script is embedded in the source page
4
Pros and cons of CGIs

• Pros
• can be written in any programming language
• can run in all hardware software platforms
• large library of free applications/scripts
• Cons
• performance problems, specially in Windows
• more complex programming than alternatives, Perl,
  C and Java

5
Pros and cons of ASP

• Pros
• simpler to program in Windows, using VBScript or
  JavaScript
• ASP.dll is loaded in the same space than IIS
• designed to support data bases
• Cons
• Mostly restricted to Windows platform (20 of
  servers)

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Others

• Win-CGI programs in Visual Basic or C using the
  equivalent of cgi-lib.pl
• Macromedias Cold Fusion code is embedded in the
  pages as ASP.
• PHP also a embedded code page generator, but
  free.