in pages (type=hidden)reinitializes fields (type=reset)or makes multiple-choice buttons (type=checkboxsubmission methodget and post forms also include method option to specify the encoding style to be used to send data over socket to the target server machine herewe use the post stylewhich contacts the server and then ships it stream of user input data in separate transmission over the socket an alternative get style ships input information to the server in single transmission step by appending user inputs to the query string at the end of the url used to invoke the scriptusually after character query parameters were introduced earlier when we met urlswe will put them to use later in this section with getinputs typically show up on the server in environment variables or as arguments in the command line used to start the script with postthey must be read from standard input and decoded because the get method appends inputs to urlsit allows users to bookmark actions with parameters for later submission ( link to retail sitetogether with the name of particular item)post is very generally meant for sending data that is to be submitted once ( comment textthe get method is usually considered more efficientbut it may be subject to length limits in the operating system and is less secure (parameters may be recorded in server logsfor instancepost can handle larger inputs and may be more secure in some scenariosbut it requires an extra transmission luckilypython' cgi module transparently handles either encoding styleso our cgi scripts don' normally need to know or care which is used notice that the action url in this example' form spells out the full address for illustration because the browser remembers where the enclosing html page came fromit works the same with just the script' filenameas shown in example - example - pp \internet\web\tutor -minimal html cgi first user interactionforms enter your nameit may help to remember that urls embedded in form action tags and hyperlinks are directions to the browser firstnot to the script the tutor py script itself doesn' care which url form is used to trigger it--minimal or complete in factall parts of url climbing the cgi learning curve