Unfortunatly, there are some obstacles to overcome before using CGI programs. First, they are programs, and thus the user needs to be able to program, have acess to a programmer, or find what they need in one of the software sites on the Web. Second, CGI programs are run by users on the Web server, posing many possible problems. If you maintain the server you will be running them from, become familiar with potential security and performance risks before implementing scripts. If you are not the site administrator, contact them to find out if you have access to the CGI-BIN directory, or if they have selected programs all users have access to.
However, if the obstacles can be overcome, using CGI can add a level of user interactivity and enhancement not attainable through simple HTML.
For those who wish to find out more, following are a list of references:
