the pymailcgi server "things to do when visiting chicagothis is the fifth in our survey of python internet programmingand it continues ' discussion therewe explored the fundamentals of server-side common gateway interface (cgiscripting in python armed with that knowledgethis moves on to larger case study that underscores advanced cgi and server-side web scripting topics this presents pymailcgi-- "webmailwebsite for reading and sending email that illustrates security conceptshidden form fieldsurl generationand more because this system is similar in spirit to the pymailgui program we studied in this example also serves as comparison of the web and nonweb application models this case study is founded on basic cgi scriptingbut it implements complete website that does something more useful than ' examples as usual in this bookthis splits its focus between application-level details and python programming concepts for instancebecause this is fairly large case studyit illustrates system design concepts that are important in actual projects it also says more about cgi scripts in generalpymailcgi expands on the notions of state retention and security concerns and encryption the system presented here is neither particularly flashy nor feature rich as websites go (in factthe initial cut of pymailcgi was thrown together during layover at chicago' 'hare airportalasyou will find neither dancing bears nor blinking lights at this site on the other handit was written to serve real purposespeaks more to us about cgi scriptingand hints at just how far python server-side programs can take us as outlined at the start of this part of the bookthere are higher-level frameworkssystemsand tools that build upon ideas we will apply here for nowlet' have some fun with python on the web