By now you've been introduced to Web scripting using the three hot languages of the day: JavaScript, VBScript, and Perl. While this book attempts to show you the latest, greatest, and neatest tricks you can pull whether you have server-side capabilities or not, the various scripting gurus out there are constantly developing new methods and implementations. Invariably, if you're looking for something specific and you can't find it within the pages of the preceding chapters, you'll probably find it on the Web.
This appendix takes you on a whirlwind tour through Cyberspace, stopping off at some of the hottest spots for scripting techniques currently available.
What you'll find in the following pages is only the tip of the iceberg. Every site mentioned here can also be conveniently linked from the companion CD-ROM as well as other sites and resources that have popped up during the writing of this book. While this list is by no means comprehensive, it's an excellent place to start your excursion into Web scripting.
Perl, the oldest scripting language, is a popular choice for server-side scripting. It was made available as freely distributable software, and you'll find everything from interpreter updates to sample scripts to help with your scripting online.
http://www.perl.com/perl/
This is an excellent starting point for Perl information. From here you can link to other sites, discover new mailing lists, download the latest releases, and access the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN), a globally interlinked initiative to make Perl easily available.
http://www.eff.org/~erict/Scripts/
This is a "one stop shopping center" for Perl scripts. In addition to scripts, you'll find a comprehensive FAQ, links to other resources, and a reference library of suggested Perl reading.
http://www.worldwidemart.com/scripts/
With the submissions of other writers, as well as his own, Matt has compiled one of the best central sources for Perl scripts on the Internet. You can browse through the available scripts or fill out a form and have them e-mailed to you in the compression format of your choice.
http://www.perl.hip.com/
Hip Communications distributes a collection of Perl implementations for 32-bit Windows (Windows 95 and NT), covering Intel, Alpha, and PowerPC platforms. It also maintains several mailing lists relating to its products.
The original Perl newsgroup (comp.lang.perl) has been replaced by a family of groups that break the discussion of Perl programming into smaller pieces, including:
comp.lang.perl.announce
comp.lang.perl.misc
comp.lang.perl.modules
comp.lang.perl.tk
Another group, comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi, covers CGI in general, but has a good deal of information on Perl as well.
mailto:ntperl@mail.hip.com
This list is used to discuss issues involving running Perl 5 under Windows NT. You can subscribe to it by e-mailing majordomo@mail.hip.com with a message body of subscribe ntperl yourE-mailAddress.
mailto:mac-perl@iis.ee.ethz.ch
Focusing on the implementation and use of Perl on the Macintosh, subscribe to this list by e-mailing mac-perl-request@iis.ee.ethz.ch with subscribe in the message body.
As the first scripting language available for client-side scripting, JavaScript is the most popular right now, but VBScript is gaining.
http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/3.0/handbook/javascript/index.html
As the home of JavaScript, Netscape always has the latest information on what's new and what's changed with each new release of its Navigator browser. Its online authoring guide lists every object, method, and property of the language.
http://www.c2.org/~andreww/javascript/
The JavaScript Index is a solid compendium of JavaScript implementations and experimentation that includes a growing list of personal home pages that show off a variety of JavaScript tricks. A subset of the site is the JavaScript Library, a small but expanding collection of source codes from around the Web community.
http://www.infohiway.com/javascript/
With a growing collection of free, usable scripts, the Cut-N-Paste JavaScript center presents an interesting interface for accessing various JavaScript tricks. You can search for a script, examine it in action, and then cut it from the browser and paste it into your own documents.
http://www.webconn.com/java/javascript/intro/
Voodoo's JavaScript Tutorial is an ongoing tutorial presented in easy-to-digest sections covering the basics of JavaScript. It includes examples built into the page along with descriptive text and code examples. It's a good place to get your feet wet.
http://jrc.livesoftware.com/
Another growing collection of JavaScript tools, tips, and tricks. Live Software, which runs the site, also has two specialized UseNet newsgroups available-one for developer's questions, and one for examples.
http://www.dannyg.com/javascript
This is a collection of examples covering more advanced concepts in JavaScript, including cookies. Danny Goodman is one of the de facto experts on JavaScript on the Web, and provides some good examples to learn and adapt other applications from.
http://www.sysnews.com/
Run by TNS, sysnews.com is a central source for information on a variety of topics, including JavaScript. Its JavaScript conference center includes sample scripts, a forum for questions and discussion, and a "Pick of the Week" that highlights other JavaScript-enabled sites and hot spots around the Web.
news:comp.lang.javascript
As the only newsgroup specifically dedicated to JavaScript development, this one gets somewhat lively, including heated debates over Netscape's and Microsoft's implementations of JavaScript at times.
mailto:javascript@obscure.org
Sponsored by the Obscure Organization (http://www.obscure.org/) and TeleGlobal Media, Inc. (http://www.tgm.com/), the JavaScript Index is the only mailing list at the time of this writing dedicated specifically to JavaScript. The discussion gets pretty varied and ranges from introductory questions to more involved discussions on how best to handle animation, framing, reloads, and so on. To subscribe, send a message to majordomo@obscure.org with subscribe javascript in the message body. Alternatively, you can point your browser at http://www.obscure.org/javascript/ for further information.
Microsoft, not wanting to have anything on the Internet that doesn't carry its mark, countered the release of JavaScript with its own client-side scripting environment: VBScript. An Internet-oriented extension of its popular Visual Basic, VBScript provides much of the same functionality as JavaScript, with the additional capability of integrating ActiveX and OLE controls into the browser architecture.
http://www.microsoft.com/VBScript/
The Microsoft home site carries the latest information on the VBScript language that includes code examples and add-on tools.
http://www.inquiry.com/vbscentral/
This site is well on its way to do for VBScript what Gamelan has done for Java-provide a central repository for VBScript tips and tricks. If you develop an interesting implementation of VBScript, this is the place to post the announcement.
While VBScript controls Internet Explorer the same way JavaScript does, ActiveX extends the browser by offering an interface for the development of plug-in controls that add further functionality. Because of the nature of ActiveX as a programmer's development environment, sites catering to it tend to be marketing engines for a company's programming tools.
http://www.microsoft.com/ActiveX/
Site Builder is Microsoft's latest incarnation of what originally started as BlackBird, a platform for developing content for the Microsoft Network. After a brief renaming to Internet Studio, Site Builder has evolved into a comprehensive Web design environment.
http://www.activextra.com/
This is a growing collection of ActiveX resources, including controls, vendors, site links, and suggested reading.
http://www.activex.com/
Another site from the C|Net family, along with search.com, cnet.com, and shareware.com, is activex.com a growing central repository of controls, tips, tricks, and techniques for incorporating ActiveX within your Web pages.
VBScript, JavaScript, and ActiveX all provide the means to control Java applets. Here are some places around the Internet where you'll find out more about the hottest programming language to come down the Web.
http://java.sun.com/
Sun hosts the Java home site, the place where it all started. Additionally, Sun maintains the Java Users Group (a subgroup inside the Sun Users Group) and several mailing and notification lists to keep developers informed of the latest events.
http://www.gamelan.com/
Called "the online Java index," EarthWeb's Gamelan has an extensive collection of links to other sites as well as examples, tools, utilities, and other interesting resources. Although primarily targeting Java, the JavaScript section is quite sizeable.
http://www.borland.com/javaworld/
To support its endeavors to integrate Java development into Latte, Borland's host site for Java development promises to keep Java developers informed.
http://www.symantec.com/
Symantec led the pack in providing a development platform for Java applet creation. With Café, Symantec provided the Web community with the first GUI-based development environment for applet creation. Café was the first publicly available Java development add-on to its popular C++ package.
http://www.natural.com/
For Java applet developers, Roaster is the first Macintosh development environment that provides a GUI platform for the creation of Java applets.
http://www.metrowerks.com/
CodeWarrior is the most popular C++ development platform for Macintosh and PowerPC developers today, and Metrowerks is working on making a Java development add-on available.
http://www.dnx.com/
Dimension X is the home of Liquid Reality, a Java applet development platform that merges the capabilities of a 3-D modeling package with a Java application builder.
http://www.digitalfocus.com/faq/
Sponsored by Digital Focus, the Java Developer serves as the home site for the Java Developer FAQ and one of the more interesting implementations of frames to present search and question submission buttons as you browse the site.
With the massive popularity of Java, the original Java newsgroup (comp.lang.java) quickly grew beyond what was practical to keep up with and maintain. To offset this explosive growth, a family of news groups was created, each targeting a different facet of the Java language:
comp.lang.java.advocacy
comp.lang.java.announce
comp.lang.java.api
comp.lang.java.misc
comp.lang.java.programmer
comp.lang.java.security
comp.lang.java.setup
comp.lang.java.tech
Chapter 23, "Search Engine Front-End," shows you how to implement a front-end to a search engine on your site. Here are some of the more popular sites already in existence around the Internet.
http://www.altavista.com/
Alta Vista is the largest search site on the Web with over 20 million pages indexed. It is a great place to start looking for just about anything.
http://www.yahoo.com/
Yahoo is short for "You Always Have Other Options," and although this is most definitely true on the Net, you'd be hard pressed to find others as broad.
http://www.lycos.com/
One of the granddaddies of the search world, Lycos has been watching the Web longer than any other major engine.
http://www.webcrawler.com/
Supported by America Online, WebCrawler is a broad-spectrum search system that's fast. In fact, it has one of the fastest reply systems on the Net.
http://www.excite.com/
Another comprehensive online search site, Excite's search engine is freely available for inclusion in your own Web site. It is also found on the companion CD-ROM.
Several sites on the Web serve as a central clearing house for Internet-related applications. Many of these are being developed as low-cost shareware by private individuals. Although these sites address a broader base than Java or JavaScript, they are expanding their coverage to include Java editors, extended HTML tools, and so on.
http://www.stroud.com/
The Consummate Winsock Software (CWS) list is just as the name implies: a very complete collection of the best, the latest, the greatest, and the not so great. Combining a five-star rating system and a thorough collection of product reviews, including both pro and con analysis of all products, CWS is an excellent place to keep up with what's new and different.
http://www.tucows.com/
The Ultimate Collection Of Winsock Software (hence the acronym), TUCOWS rivals CWS for its completeness and variety of content. There is naturally some duplication between the two sites, but one complements the other quite nicely. The most popular software on the Net is found in both. For the broadest picture of what's available, it's worth stopping by both.
Similar to CWS and its "star" rating system (the more stars, the better the software), TUCOWS has a "cow" rating system that highlights hot titles. The "five cow" titles are absolute musts.
http://www.shareware.com/
What started as the Virtual Shareware Library (VSL), this site has been taken over by c|net central, an online/on-TV source for the latest breaking information on Internet technology. Although it doesn't attempt to rate software, it does provide a "top downloads" list to indicate what Netizens have deemed the hot products of the moment.
Unlike CWS and TUCOWS, which link one product to one download link, shareware. com's download section presents a list of sites rated by reliability around the world from which you can retrieve a particular file.
As said at the beginning of this section, this is by no means a comprehensive list of all possible places to find scripting information on the Internet. However, between what's listed here and additional resources you'll find on the CD-ROM, you'll have an excellent starting collection of informational sites.