I am interested in making some standalone (not over the Web) HTML pages using FORMs. Is there any way to run CGI scripts on the same machine as the HTML page, without setting up a full Web server? I just need something that will accept a submission from a page FORM (like something in a server's CGI-BIN). I can handle decoding the "scriptname?name=val" bit, if that can be passed to the command line of the script (or in a file). Obviously some browser is needed on the user end. Bonus points if there's something that can be run on a variety of platforms. Thanks!

Nope. You need a webserver to handle the data-traffic and control all the elements that need to do something in your description (deliver an html-file to a client, accept data from a client and sent it to an interpreter, accept data back from the interpreter and send the output to the client, etc etc). It is by far the easiest way, and you dont have to be afraid of setting up a webserver because it is very easy nowadays. Strictly spoken it can be done with writing a program yourself that will interact with the client and the cgi-interpreter, but that is a very hard work and since you didnt come up with that solution yourself, I dont think you are capable ;-P If you ask, people here will post back with their setup so you can choose a setup you like. I am using abyss webserver X1 (www.aprelium.com) wich is very light and doesnt use much system resources, and doesnt require much knowledge. I have installed mysql and php with it, but that all depends on the scripts you want to run.

Thanks for the response. I was hoping to avoid having to set up a full server because this is to be sold to customers who, for the most part, are barely able to run a setup program, much less set up and configure a Web server. My intent in using a browser and FORMs was that everyone would have a ready-made client and I wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel -- just write some HTML, a Perl script or two, and be done. I guess I'll have to look into either obtaining an open-source browser and tweaking it to NOT use HTTP to talk to the CGI processor (has anyone already done this?), or bite the bullet and write my own client GUI that builds-in FORM-like processing and directly invokes scripts. More work either way, unless someone has a suggestion? Thanks!