CookieTest CGI Script

I wrote this test script for cookies in January 1997, in preparation for running a survey of Mac developers on platform choices. Here's the email that I sent to the WebSTAR-talk, Mac Scripting and Frontier-talk lists.

I'm testing out a new CGI app that's going to use cookies. I just found and fixed a problem with Microsoft browsers. This code's going to get a good workout next week, so I want to burn it in now so there are no problems when we run the second developer survey. If you have a moment to visit this page and reload several times it would be appreciated. I will upload the Frontier code for handling cookies as soon as this stuff is burned in.

http://206.204.24.10:81/samples.cookieTest.cgi

You should be able to quit your browser and have it remember the number (this will test the cookie expiration date). It should work with MSIE or Netscape, not sure about other browsers.

BTW, the reason we're using cookies is so that no person can vote twice. In the first survey we had it set up so that no IP address could vote twice, but this cut off a lot of people who access the net behind a firewall.

I also want to save off how the individual voted in the cookie so that if we do another survey we can measure changes without storing information on the server. A perfect application for cookies, I think.

Dave Winer

PS: See the DaveNet piece Cookies for some culture.

This is a fat web page containing user.webserver.cgis.samples.cookieTest. More info on fat pages here.