What are server-side and client-side programs?
The World Wide Web was originally designed as a publishing medium a web author publishes web pages. Users quickly realized that the web could be used for more than just publishing static, unchanging web pages. Technologies such as CGI (Common Gateway Interface) and servlets allow web pages to present dynamic content content retrieved from databases or computed on demand. These technologies run on the web server, and are called server-side technologies. Server-side programs power such things as search engines and web-cams, bring you the weather report and up-to-the-minute stock quotes. Server-side programs also drive electronic commerce, both retail and business-to-business. In addition to providing more dynamic content, people also wanted to make the web more interactive, so they could manipulate and view this information as desired. Unfortunately, interaction in HTML is limited to clicking on links, and even CGI is limited to simple text-based forms. This interaction requires a round
