Aphex_Twin

I'm a terrible novice at this, I only started getting interesting yesterday. So even if my question sounds stupid, try to answer it if you can.

Now, I have a background in static HTML and the C language.

I understand CGI scripts are pieces of code written in Perl or actual executables to be run from the server. Now, if I compile a C program and I place it in the cgi-bin folder of the server root, why does the server not "execute" it?

I tried something very simple, a file named "database.txt" and each time the script was supposed to be lannched it would modify the file somehow (i.e. add a character to it).

I'm running the Abyss Web Server to test the future site, but it doesn't want to run the executable. (I attempted to install Apache yesterday, but I gave up after 2 hours of tinkering with it - why doesn't it come in Windows friendly?). Well Abyss thing runs static javascript et. all, but I can't get it to run cgi although it should according to the specifications.