APPENDIX A - What's on the CD?

The CD-ROM bound in the back of this book has been carefully prepared and researched so you'll have various tools and examples to help you enhance your Web pages using CGI scripting. The entire CD has been linked with HTML Web pages so that you can access it via your favorite browser (there's even a browser included, in case you need one). You'll find that the Web pages often have links to the software programs on the disk, the graphics files and examples, and to actual sites on the World Wide Web (you'll need an Internet connection to use these).

Starting up the CD is simple. From within your browser, load the file loadme.htm. The first page will lead you to the next pages, whereupon you can choose what you'd like to see next.

Keep in mind that many of the programs you'll see on the CD are beta versions, meaning that they're a work in progress-functional, but not with all the bugs worked out or all the features active yet. We offer them so you can sample what their technology has to offer and, if you're sufficiently tantalized, you can download the latest version from the Web. But first, cut your Internet connect charges by using the version on our CD.

Many of the programs on the CD are shareware, offered free for a period of time so you may evaluate it and decide whether you would like to use it. If so, you can register with the software company, pay a fee, and receive a fully working version and possibly other perks. Please respect the efforts of the software authors who have toiled over a hot monitor late into the night to bring you a quality program at a reasonable price.

We've organized the material in a way that each program mentioned by the authors is found in a directory numbered after the chapter in which the reference to it first appeared. Some files may appear more than once if referred to more than once in the book.

You'll find links to other programs that may not have been mentioned in the book and were included because we felt they would help you develop the other aspects of a Web page in which a reader might become involved. A few of those programs are as follows:

• Perl. This is one of the preferred programming languages for CGI scripting.
• HotDog HTML Editor. We've included HotDog for one simple reason-it's one of the best and easiest tools for creating and managing Web pages. The program you'll find on the CD is the standard version, which is upgradable to the professional version (click the link to Sausage Software for more information). It's solid and reliable and will serve you for years to come. Upgrade it to the professional version, and you'll not need another HTML editor for quite a while.
• PaintShop Pro. Many shareware programs are available for manipulating graphics, but there are almost none for creating them from scratch. PaintShop Pro is a fully featured paint program that also excels at image manipulation, making it the program of choice for making your Web page graphics. Registering the shareware version will get you even more capability.
• Map This! Those lovely image maps you see on others Web pages are quite a pain to control unless you have a program such as Map This! It's an excellent utility for setting up the links from different areas of your image.
• WebForms. The creation of a Web page form can be a daunting task without a program such as WebForms, which makes it simple and easy.
• Java Development Kit. This is a must-have should you decide to get in to Java programming. The JDK includes the Java applet viewer as well. Mac and Windows versions can be found on the CD.