ATL Server is an extension of ATL that enables you to write ISAPI applications and bring your C++ skills to the World Wide Web. Learn how ATL Server works in this sample chapter.
Hello, ATL Server: a Modern C++ Web Platform
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSAlert.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
ATL? Is this the same ATL I used with COM? The template layer? I haven’t seen this stuff in ages. No disrespect to the C++ (I like C++) and MS programmers, but isn’t this a huge leap backwards?
Good luck to you if you tie your app this closely to a Microsoft envirnment.
What would the motives be for tying one’s destiny to Mr. Softy and not doing ADO.Net?
It requires at least 10 lines of code just to do a “hello world” without the enclosing markup. I mean I love C++, it’s my favorite language… but you must use a language for what it’s good at. Using C++ for web development is just plain wrong.
Just my 2c.
Edited because of typo
Edited 2006-10-02 01:37
C++ is great for web development. But you need the right tools.
I once thought, it would be just great to use this great language for web development and created Tntnet ( http://www.tntnet.org ). It has a template-language similar to JSP, PHP or HTML::Mason, where I can embed C++-code in my web pages.
It’s not for Windows, so no alternative for those, who are tied to this platform.
Tommi
No disrespect to the author but to those considering writing an ISAPI filter should note that ISAPI is deprecated in IIS7, in favor of IIS7 “modules”. A module can be written using either native C++ or ASP.NET, as shown here:
http://forums.iis.net/1378182/ShowThread.aspx
I thought MFC/ATL was only being maintained by MS for legacy applications. With all the rhetoric (and marketing) surrounding .NET why would anyone spend time learning ATL if they don’t already know it?
Jobs maybe. Certainly not for fun
Not only is more difficult to achieve good development speed in contrast with interpreted languages, also there’s the problem with bugs that could trigger a security breach. Besides, most web applications do:
1 – form processing, i.e. string processing.
2 – database access.
3 – XML/XHTML/JSON generation, i.e. string processing.
This is a job better suited to dynamic languages, like Python, Perl and PHP. C++ should be relegated to backend business processes, not web page generation.
I couldn’t live with the compile-reload_web_server needed for C/C++/Java languages.
Remember also that if you write these things, that you have to be aware of the 32 and 64 bit platforms. 32 bit isapi dlls do not run on the new 64 bit OS or vice versa.