Implementation Model

THE META-HTML LANGUAGE REFERENCE MANUAL

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Implementation Model

Initially, the vast majority of World Wide Web (WWW) documents consisted of static pages of text and images, which were described using HTML, and displayed using a browser which understood only the HTML language. The nature of a WWW connection is stateless by definition; each request for information is not associated in any way with any previous request for information, even when from the same source.

Connections are made from a browser to a WWW server, in which the browser requests a particular item of data by specifying a Universal Resource Locator (URL). The server looks up the URL, and then returns the data contained within. While most URLs are static HTML documents, there exists a mechanism in which a program can be run. The output of such a program is an HTML document, and such programs are referred to as Common Gateway Interface, or CGI programs.

Meta-HTML is currently implemented as a CGI program which can be executed every time the server is ready to retrieve a document. As before, the document to be retrieved can be a file of HTML, an image, or a CGI program to be executed. However, the document can also be a file of Meta-HTML code, in which case the benefits of dynamic variables and flow-control statements are fully realized.

Although this implementation method is not server-specific, you still must make a couple of configuration changes to your HTTP server in order to hide the Meta-HTML program from the user. Details are in the Installation Guide.