Observations on some PHP and CGI scripts.
I've worked with several PHP and CGI scripts which I've tried on my websites. After after about five years of tweaking them and making them work, I have come up with a few conclusions regarding them.
Here I think are the best two PHP scripts that one can download for free and use for one's website:
1. GeekLog. This handsome programme is easy to install. It comes with a lot of templates and plugins that one can use for one's site. The GeekLog community is also one of the busiest in the web and the members are quite helpful with suggestions on how one can improve one's geeklog. Visit http://www.geeklog.net for the software.
2. WordPress. It isn't as "heavy" as GeekLog, and it is quite difficult to make it look any different from the default one. But it is very easy to install and easy to use.
These two scripts both use MySQL for their databases. There are PHP scripts that don't use MySQL. One of them is CuteNews. It used to be good, but the most recent version has a bug that prevents someone using a browser other than Mozilla Firefox enter the administration panel.
The best Perl CGI scripts I've used are the following:
1. Coranto from http://coranto.gweilo.org is still the best news publishing utility I've used. It was formerly known as NewsPro. A PHP version was supposed to be released a year ago by a Coranto break away group, but the project didn't seem to push through.
2. Grey Matter by Noah Grey is a blog publishing utility that has been improved by a team of enthusiasts during the past year.
Both these scripts are easy to install on any server. There is one program which I have found to be a problem on install; Movable Type. I have tried to work with this but I have failed miserably. There are other good Perl CGI scripts available at the CGIResourceIndex, but all these others lack the ease of use I have found in Coranto and Grey Matter.
I am not a web programmer, just a web enthusiast who has tried to look at PHP and Perl CGI from the inside. I may be too simplistic in my approach towards the PHP and Perl scripts that the web provides. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.