title: How to return a "noop" document over HTTP
body: <p>I have a CGI script that does a lot things.  I'm trying to keep the script very simple and portable.  I just need some way for the user to send a message to the server without having to lose the current page.  So far, I have the following process:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>User loads a "status page" from a CGI script.</li>
  <li>The status page has a javascript timer that will read data (not the entire page) from the server every two seconds and alter the status page accordingly.</li>
  <li>User clicks a hyperlink element to launch a job on the server.</li>
  <li>The CGI receives the parameters from the click and starts the job.</li>
  <li>The CGI sends a response of <code>\n</code></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>At this point Firefox asks the user if they want to download the CGI script and of course the script is just the <code>\n</code> that the CGI sent.  Instead, I want the browser to ignore the response altogether.  If my CGI script does not echo a <code>\n</code> apache gives an error.  What could I do to tell the browser to ignore the response and stay on the current page?  Note that I would rather not reload the current page.  I'm thinking there must be some sort of "noop" HTTP response for such a case.</p>