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Is Curl going to replace HTML, and what is it exactly

01:00 Mon 12th Nov 2001 | Technology

Asks tonyturrell

A. Curl is a new form of content language that integrates mark-up functionality, scripting functionality and a full-featured object-oriented programming language within the same environment. It has been developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US and has been hyped as replacing HTML (hypertext mark-up language) not because it is simply an alternative to HTML and its ability to create web pages - but because it can work with HTML (and DGI, JavaScript and other languages) or in place of it.

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Q. How would it make HTML unnecessary

A. It will not make it unnecessary as such but will look at content language in a completely different way - it will compile web page source code such as HTML, Flash and Java onto a desktop PC instead of on a remote server as happens at the moment - in this way your PC and not the server is in the driving seat - which means that smaller files can be sent, less bandwidth will be used and you can operate faster and more efficiently.

Currently the web is heavily subscribed with a limited number of servers serving millions of users�- often making it a slow and unstable environment in which to work - and not the best one for computers and computation in general to operate.

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Q. How does Curl actually differ from HTML

A. Curl provides a rich set of formatting operations similar to those implemented by HTML tags. Unlike HTML, the Curl formatter can be extended by users to provide additional functionality, from simple macros (e.g., to provide a convenient way to switch to a particular font, size and colour) to direct control over the positioning of subcomponents.

Curl then makes it easy to build simple interactive web pages because it uses the same easy-to-learn syntax to create interactive documents as to create regular text documents - so there is no need to learn a separate scripting language as you do with HTML.

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It has been created as a gentle slope system which means that it is very accessible to content creators at all levels - so by using a simple, uniform language syntax and semantics, Curl avoids the discontinuities experienced by current web users who have to juggle HTML, JavaScript, Java, Perl, etc. to create today's websites.

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Q. How can I access Curl files

A. You have to download software that will enable you to read Curl content pages, known as Surge, this requires a bit more effort than HTML because your current browser reads HTML pages automatically. The Surge software is similar in size to an MP3 file so very quick to download. Curl can then be accessed via browsers from Microsoft and Netscape Communications. The Curl Surge browser plug-in then acts like a just-in-time compiler that enables the content of an application to be downloaded to the client and executed in the same location.

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Q. Can Curl Surge only be used on PCs, or can it be used on a phone

A. Curl Corporation is also developing a version of Curl Surge for devices that have a smaller footprint than a desktop PC, with versions planned for mobile phones in two years time and set-top boxes in about a year from now.

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Q. What sort of companies are currently using Curl

A. Siemens and BT are said to be using it for their intranets, and the banking software company Adisoft AG has also signed up for it. Curl Corporation is said to be targeting firms with applications, which place high demands on web servers - and are currently in talks with lots of major companies.

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Helpful websites: A white paper on the top level workings of Curl is available from the MIT website at: http://cag-www.lcs.mit.edu/curl/toplevel.html

You can download curl at the following MIT website: http://www.cag.lcs.mit.edu/curl/download.html

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By Karen Anderson

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