Matthias Hoffmann - Thoughts And Ideas


Developing HTML/CGI-Apps is exhausting

Developing CGI apps and/or HTML-Dialogs is exhausting and time-consuming, even with tcl. Generating HTML syntax is complex even with the help of html, ncgi and other packages. Maintaining session states makes things even more complicated.

What came in my mind is the idea to use tk-Syntax to generate HTML-Dialogs, e.g. entry generates an <input>-Tag and so on. It's clear that the capabilities and concepts of a native GUI and CGI-driven HTML-dialogs aren't much congruent, but what I search for is a much more easy way to develop Webserver/Browser-based GUIs and apps.

I know there are several tools in tclhttpd which go in this direction, but most of them I never used, perhaps they are not fully documented.... And, sadly, in the real world I won't even have any tclhttpd available at all (but - good lord - MS IIS), so I'm restricted to use good old CGI procs - I'm happy if I permitted to code at least this tools in tcl (my favorite and by far the most productive tool I've ever used!).

For a better understanding of what I mean, see my first try in generating HTML with commands styled after Tk.


One year after writing the above, I think Aejaks goes in exactly the right direction. Although I would prefer native tcl solutions...


Category Essay | Category Internet