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(Version 1.4.1) |
Welcome to PSP!Pascal Server Pages (PSP) is cross-platform code library including everything around the web programming universe. It is designed to standardize cross-platform binary CGI programming and provide you with all necessary algorithms in web sphere and not only in it.A few words about the library history, and current PSP state. The project was started sometime in the autumn of 2003 just for fun as simple web unit for Free Pascal Compiler (FPC). Having received lots of positive responses after first releases, I decided that this project is really useful and has its future. All releases from 1.0.0 till 1.3.3 were designed as web stuff for FPC. Current branch is 1.4.x. It is designed as intermediate step between PSP 1.3.x and PSP 2.0.x. What does this mean for you? It means that in this branch we try to implement most of PSP2 features and standards, get as closer to PSP2 as possible, while still keeping a stable PSP "Pascal Server Pages" unit library for Free Pascal Compiler (FPC). PSP2 will have different structure and even another name. Perfect Server Pages (PSP) 2.0.x will be cross-platform dynamic library (DLL/DSO) providing all useful features as mentioned above and both functional and object oriented interfaces. It will be available for different programming languages and compilers, such as FPC, Delphi/Kylix, GCC/G++, MSVCPP and maybe others. PSP2 will become a standard of binary CGI programming. Now from theory to practice. What can you do with PSP? Actually, everything depending on your wish and skills. PSP just gives you some tools, and then your fantasy and work follow. It is possible to write everything: hit counter, guest-book, bulletin board (forum), mailers, online stores, CMS, online database access, etc. But it also suits very unusual tasks. For example, there is a remote PC access control panel with web interface called "Web Control" written in Free Pascal using PSP, WinAPI and HTTP. It is impossible to write something like "Web Control" using PHP or Perl. PSP is not a scripting language. This fact has its own pluses and minuses. Of course scripts are pretty simple in development, porting and hosting. And as for binary CGI, you need to compile them for target platform (CPU + OS). But on the other side well-coded binary CGIs work about 10 times faster than interpretable scripts and save a lot of memory. It would seem like there would be more work and responsibility involved when writing binary CGI programs, but integrated environments are being worked on to make development easy. There are a lot of tools in PSP, but of course if they are not always enough you have the power to pull in your own units. Nothing stops you from using other libraries with PSP such as MySQL Client Library, OCI, PCRE, GD2, ZLib and lots more. See the links, tips, and FAQ in this documentation, and search the web and forums if you need more info. |