material added in later editions of this book reflects recent technology shifts in this domain given such large and dynamic fieldthis part of the book does not even pretend to be complete look at the server-side scripting domain that isyou should not take this text to be final word on the subject to become truly proficient in this areayou should also expect to spend some time studying other texts for additional webmaster- details and techniques--for examplechuck musciano and bill kennedy' html xhtmlthe definitive guide ( 'reillythe good news is that here you will explore the core ideas behind server-side programmingmeet python' cgi tool setand learn enough to start writing substantial websites of your own in python this knowledge should apply to wherever the web or you head next what' server-side cgi scriptsimply putcgi scripts implement much of the interaction you typically experience on the web they are standard and widely used mechanism for programming webbased systems and website interactionand they underlie most of the larger web development models there are other ways to add interactive behavior to websites with pythonboth on the client and the server we briefly met some such alternatives near the start of for instanceclient-side solutions include jython appletsrias such as silverlight and pyjamasactive scripting on windowsand the emerging html standard on the server sidethere are variety of additional technologies that build on the basic cgi modelsuch as python server pagesand web frameworks such as djangoapp enginecherrypyand zopemany of which utilize the mvc programming model by and largethoughcgi server-side scripts are used to program much of the activity on the webwhether it' programmed directly or partly automated by frameworks and tools cgi scripting is perhaps the most primitive approach to implementing websitesand it does not by itself offer the tools that are often built into larger frameworks such as state retentiondatabase interfacesand reply templating cgi scriptshoweverare in many ways the simplest technique for server-side scripting as resultthey are an ideal way to get started with programming on the server side of the web especially for simpler sites that do not require enterprise-level toolscgi is sufficientand it can be augmented with additional libraries as needed the script behind the curtain formally speakingcgi scripts are programs that run on server machine and adhere to the common gateway interface-- model for browser/server communications server-side scripting