What does the CGI script mean?

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Javascript

Below are code snippets. I've got two questions for the two calls inside function

rescanNetwork

:

<pre>    newAJAXCommand('scan.cgi?scan=1');

and

<pre>    setTimeout("newAJAXCommand('status.xml', updateStatus, false)", 50);

For the first call, the parameter (

Quote:

'scan.cgi?scan=1'

)
but the content of scan.cgi is "

Quote:

Success! ~scan~

". In my understanding, scan.cgi is a CGI script, how come "Success! ~scan~" doesn't look like a script program? What language is it?
For the second call,

Quote:

"newAJAXCommand('status.xml', updateStatus, false)"

, status.xml should be a CGI script too, but can a XML file be a script program?

<pre>
// Initiates a new AJAX command
//  url: the url to access
//  container: the document ID to fill, or a function to call with response XML (optional)
//  repeat: true to repeat this call indefinitely (optional)
//  data: an URL encoded string to be submitted as POST data (optional)
function newAJAXCommand(url, container, repeat, data)
{
    // Set up our object
    var newAjax = new Object();
    var theTimer = new Date();
    newAjax.url = url;
    newAjax.container = container;
    newAjax.repeat = repeat;
    newAjax.ajaxReq = null;

    // Create and send the request
    if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
        newAjax.ajaxReq = new XMLHttpRequest();
        newAjax.ajaxReq.open((data==null)?"GET":"POST", newAjax.url, true);
        newAjax.ajaxReq.send(data);
    // If we're using IE6 style (maybe 5.5 compatible too)
    } else if (window.ActiveXObject) {
        newAjax.ajaxReq = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
        if (newAjax.ajaxReq) {
            newAjax.ajaxReq.open((data==null)?"GET":"POST", newAjax.url, true);
            newAjax.ajaxReq.send(data);
        }
    }

    newAjax.lastCalled = theTimer.getTime();

    // Store in our array
    ajaxList.push(newAjax);
}

<pre>function rescanNetwork()
{
    scanDots = 0;
    printButtonName();
    document.getElementById("rescan").disabled = true;

    // Generate a request to hardware to issue a rescan
    newAJAXCommand('scan.cgi?scan=1');

    // Delete old table, replace with new table after scan is finished
    deleteScanTable();

    currBss = 0; // Reset the current bss pointer

    setTimeout("newAJAXCommand('status.xml', updateStatus, false)", 50);
}

What I have tried:

I studied relative knowledge inside this post, but still unable to figure out my question.