We all know free hosts are often very limited in what they offer in the way of programming support, and some don't even offer dynamic content. I thought it would be good if people could express thier opinions on how best to prepare for such a strict environment.

(Ok so paid hosting may be an option for you, but for the person using your scripts, it may not be.)

I'll start the ball rolling with a couple of my own thoughts:

1. Use only standard modules that come with perl
(free hosts are unlikely to install modules for you)

2. For anything using a database backend, offer the option of flatfile database.
Very few free hosts offer any kind of datbase support.

3. Avoid system calls where possible.
Free hosts often block system calls, and this can render a script relient on these useless.


Anyone care to add to this ?

Limiting the number of CGI processes.

Limiting the number of CGI processes.

Yes, I forgot about that one. I remember it well from my days with a certain free host.
Should one of your processes run more than about 10 seconds, or should u happen to run a number of processes,
you were dissalowed any CGI for up to 48 hours !!!

(and that was one of the less bothersome things about them)