Java and the Internet
If Java is, in fact, yet another computer programming language, you may question why it is so important and why it is being promoted as a revolutionary step in computer programming. The answer isn’t immediately obvious if you’re coming from a traditional programming perspective. Although Java is very useful for solving traditional stand-alone programming problems, it is also important because it will solve programming problems on the World Wide Web.
1. Client-side programming
The Web’s initial server-browser design provided for interactive content, but the interactivity was completely provided by the server. The server produced static pages for the client browser, which would simply interpret and display them. Basic HTML contains simple mechanisms for data gathering: text-entry boxes, check boxes, radio boxes, lists and drop-down lists, as well as a button that can only be programmed to reset the data on the form or “submit” the data on the form back to the server. This submission passes through the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) provided on all Web servers. The text within the submission tells CGI what to do with it. The most common action is to run a program located on the server in a directory that’s typically called “cgi-bin.” (If you watch the address window at the top of your browser when you push a


Java和因特網(wǎng)
既然Java不過另一種類型的程序設(shè)計(jì)語言，大家可能會(huì)奇怪它為什么值得如此重視，為什么還有這么多的人認(rèn)為它是計(jì)算機(jī)程序設(shè)計(jì)的一個(gè)里程碑呢？如果您來自一個(gè)傳統(tǒng)的程序設(shè)計(jì)背景，那么答案在剛開始的時(shí)候并不是很明顯。Java除了可解決傳統(tǒng)的程序設(shè)計(jì)問題以外，還能解決World Wide Web(萬維網(wǎng))上的編程問題。
1.客戶端編程
Web最初采用的“服務(wù)器－瀏覽器”方案可提供交互式內(nèi)容，但這種交互能力完全由服務(wù)器提供，為服務(wù)器和因特網(wǎng)帶來了不小的負(fù)擔(dān)。服務(wù)器一般為客戶瀏覽器產(chǎn)生靜態(tài)網(wǎng)頁(yè)，由后者簡(jiǎn)單地解釋并顯示出來?；綡TML語言提供了簡(jiǎn)單的數(shù)據(jù)收集機(jī)制：文字輸入框、復(fù)選框、單選鈕、列表以及下拉列表等，另外還有一個(gè)按鈕，只能由程序規(guī)定重新設(shè)置表單中的數(shù)據(jù)，以便回傳給服務(wù)器。用戶提交的信息通過所有Web服務(wù)器均能支持的“通用網(wǎng)關(guān)接口”（CGI）回傳到服務(wù)器。包含在提交數(shù)據(jù)中的文字指示CGI該如何操作。最常見的行動(dòng)是運(yùn)行位于服務(wù)器的一個(gè)程序。那個(gè)程序一般保存在一個(gè)名為“cgi-bin”的目錄中（按下Web頁(yè)內(nèi)的一個(gè)按鈕時(shí)，請(qǐng)注意一下瀏覽器頂部的地址窗，經(jīng)常都能發(fā)現(xiàn)“cgi-bin”的字樣）。大多數(shù)語言都可用來編制這些程序，但其中最常見的是Perl。這是由于Perl是專為文字的處理及解釋而設(shè)計(jì)的，所以能在任何服務(wù)器上安裝和使用，無論采用的處理器或操作系統(tǒng)是什么。