I'd like to get into web development using C++ as the "scripting language" on the server-side.  My server infrastructure is *nix based, so doing web development in C++ on Azure is not applicable and C++/CLI ASP.NET is also not applicable.

Separate from legacy CGI applications, can web development be done using C++ ?

Absolutely.

There are even several frameworks for developing them, including Wt, cppcms, CSP, and others. FastCGI's mainline implementation is in C, and directly supports several languages, including C++.

Any programming language that can parse strings can be used in CGI or a servlet. Any language that can implement bindings with C libraries can also be used to develop modules for ISAPI- or Apache-compatible servers.

It's not particularly easy in C++, and good templating engines are few and far between, but it can be done.

Of course, the question of whether this is a good idea is another matter entirely. :)

Do note: Major websites like Amazon.com, eBay, and Google do use C++ for parts of their infrastructure. Realize, however, that Google only uses C++ for speed-critical systems, and Amazon.com only relatively recently switched away from Lisp (which angered some of their senior staff :).

Facebook formerly compiled PHP to C++, but their HipHop compiler (written partly in C++) has since been retooled as a bytecode virtual machine.
