1.2.3 Script Interpreter

It is possible to write CGI programs in C, Pascal or some other compiled languages. However, because compiled programs are more difficult to maintain with little down time, most web sites use interpretive languages. Besides Perl, other interpretive languages commonly used for CGI scripting include PHP, Java and Visual Basic.

Note that most interpretive languages can do much more than just CGI. Perl, for example, is a ``Practical Extraction and Retrieval Language''. The only exception is PHP because it is embedded into an HTML document.