What are CGI scripts used for these days?

Question

I\'m pretty well up to speed on general web programming languages, but one of the tools I\'m working with right now is in CGI. All I can tell is that CGI scripts are quite slow.

Answer 1

A project I left a few months ago still uses CGI. However, the site is for a very small user set (it only has about 40 users, and probably less than 5 use it frequently). While the hardware has been replaced 3 or 4 times, some of that code has been running for almost 10 years, with little or no modification. I'm sure other technologies would provide a performance improvement, but current performance is acceptable, and manpower to make a change is short, spread over too many areas, and not well versed in web technologies (especially since I left). This leads to an attitude of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

As for replacements I've used/plan to investigate: In my new position, I've developed a web app with PHP. However, I'm more of a Python fan and plan to look into WSGI soon. I also plan to use AJAX to replace a CGI program on a site I voluntarily maintain for a non-profit.

Answer 2

ASP, PHP, ASP.Net, Ruby on Rails are the big hitters these days.

Answer 3

I still use it on embedded computers which do not have php Language support.

Answer 4

Much like Cobol and Fortran there are some big money systems built on CGI that will of course be maintained well into the future.

Not that newer software isn't built with all those technologies from time to time.

Answer 5

CGI has been replaced by a vast variety of web programming technologies, including PHP, various Apache extensions like mod_perl, Java of various flavors and frameworks including Java EE, Struts, Spring, etc, Python-based frameworks like Django, Ruby on Rails and many other Ruby frameworks, and various Microsoft technologies.

I'm sure CGI is still used for something, but I'd guess it's mostly just little bits of code that have been sitting around for years. Wikipedia does helpfully mention that FastCGI is similar to CGI but without the massive performance drawbacks.

Answer 6

Many legacy websites are still built with cgi today, although people these days are moving away from it. One of the well renown application that is still using CGI that I know is MovableType blog.