I like books about the Internet that concentrate on specific platforms. This is due to the fact that most books inevitably concentrate on UNIX as this is the operating system around which the Internet was built. But if you are just interested in a specific type of OS then the discussions on UNIX are at best a distraction and at worst, totally confusing.

Being new to CGI (Common Gateway Interface) and a UNIX novice the last thing I wanted was for CGI to be explained in terms of shells, scripts and commands with a list of switches as long as your arm.

This book does exactly what it says on the cover. It introduces the reader to the world of CGI programming. This allows you to add a great deal of functionality to your WWW pages that is simply not possible with HTML (HyperText Markup Language).

The book takes a logical approach and the reader, with only a small understanding of the WWW, can easily write CGI in very little time. Even the basics of HTML are covered in case you are new to the subject, or a little rusty. Before long you have learnt how to set up a web server for CGI, before moving onto writing CGI itself. You are then told how to debug programs and what security aspects you need to consider.

There is the inevitable CD, which contains sample applications.

If you are interested in improving your web pages, in a Windows environment, I would recommend this book as a good way to do that.