From: Patrick May <patrick@...>
Date: 2004-06-24T14:42:01+09:00
Subject: Re: Why doesn't this work? (CGI)

Hello,

On Wednesday, June 23, 2004, at 11:28  PM, Dmitry V. Sabanin wrote:

> The problem is that variables appear in CGI#params from QUERY_STRING 
> or from
> POST data, but not from both at one time. You need to parse 
> QUERY_STRING by
> yourself and then merge that with current #params content.

I maintain an alternate CGI library, of debatable merit (in another 
thread).

If a CGI library merged query and post data, how should the data be 
merged?  Should POST overwrite GET?  Should POST and GET be added 
together, returning multiple values if both contain the same keys?

I think when the keys in GET are different from the keys in POST, the 
two (maybe) should be merged.  But about when keys overlap?  This is 
the example which bothers me:

http://blahblahblah.com/wiki.rb?page=HomePage

<form method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="page" value="HomePage">
<textarea name="content"></textarea>
<input type="submit">
</form>

I want "page" to be "HomePage".  But on submit, it becomes 
"HomePage,HomePage".  I don't really think the library is helping me by 
merging things together.

And the library is harder to write.

And since I write the library, this ends up feeling bureaucratic and 
not worth it.

To simplify, to me that's why that aspect of CGI doesn't work.

~ Patrick May