ABSTRACT
In this chapter and the one that follows, we examine issues arising in the development and use of standard Web systems as a medium for GIS. Since we can run GIS packages, such as ArcInfo, over widespread client server systems such as X-Windows, we might ask what the Web protocol has to offer. And as we shall see in this chapter, Web based GIS is not without a few problems. Since the Web server’s primary role is to deliver Web pages, server-side GIS operations have to be carried out by secondary programs (usually via the Common Gateway Interface, which we describe below). The original Web protocol, HTTP was designed for delivery of static text and simple images, and is not optimised for much else.
