"Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right."
(Henry Ford)

Better tools let you build better solutions

Why use C rather than a 'modern' language for G-WAN scripts?

   1.  If you know C, how many other languages do you need to learn*?
   2.  ANSI C is stable, efficient and available on all hardware platforms.
   3.  C can be as safe as any other language (see the 'crash.c' servlet).

#include "gwan.h" // G-WAN exported functions

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) 
{
   xbuf_ctx reply;          // create a dynamic buffer
   get_reply(argv, &reply); // setup the server reply

   char *name=0;            // get an URL parameter
   get_arg("name=", &name, argc, argv);

   xbuf_xcat(&reply, "Hello %s", // format a safe reply
             escape_html(name, name, 20)?name:"you");

   set_reply(argv, &reply); // update the server reply
   return(200);             // HTTP status (200:'OK')
}

The best way to understand G-WAN's capabilities is to play with it: just click on the links below (press the browser's 'back' button to return to this page):

[*] C is a 40-year-old free standard that offers more source code than all 'modern' alternatives... which have all been written in C (probably for a reason).