Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology
Dev Trends
First Look: The Curl Development Environment
11/8/2007
After installing, I was greeted with a development environment that reminded me of programming IDEs that I have used in the past, such as Visual Basic and Eclipse. Each Curl project is made of several modules containing code or graphical user interface (GUI) elements, with the entire list of modules conveniently available at all times in the IDE.
The GUI editor in particular is quite nice, with many UI control elements such as buttons, menu boxes, etc. available from a toolbar list, with attributes for each element available on another panel. These tools quickly allow a programmer to make a complicated GUI for a project, although doing it entirely from the source code interface is also an option for more advanced users. A project may be tested by clicking a "run" button on the main toolbar, just like in Visual Basic.
Although my knowledge of the Curl programming language was very limited at the beginning, I was able to make and successfully run a "Hello World" program after consulting an online tutorial. The code syntax is somewhat similar to CSS, with the document structure reminding me of LaTeX, although there are differences. The language gets its name from the use of the "{ }" curly brackets that are used to enclose each command in a Curl application.
Curl applications are designed to run within a Web browser just like regular HTML. Unlike traditional Web applications built with PHP, ASP, or Perl, part of the Curl application programming interface is executed client-side while the rest is executed on the server. Because of this, each visitor to a Curl-enhanced Web site needs to have the Curl runtime environment installed. Without the runtime environment, the Curl application simply will not work. This can alienate some users, since not everyone has software installation rights on the computers they use.
Curl has quite a bit going for it. The IDE is very elegant, and the language itself is fairly easy to understand after a quick study. However, the Achilles' heel for Curl is the runtime environment. If the runtime environment could be reworked to be completely server-side instead of having to be installed on a per-user basis, Curl would be universally accessible and would probably see increased deployment. On the other hand, Curl's main appeal is to the fat-client business application market, made up of those who need rich Internet applications enabled on the client side. Such companies would likely take the necessary steps to deploy Curl on their infrastructure, making the runtime dependency a non-issue. The runtime download is about 8 MB, according to a Curl Inc. representative.
It would be nice to see greater Linux support for distros that do not use .rpm packages natively. Aside from that limitation and the need to install the runtime individually, Curl has potential that could help expand its use into new markets.
Will Kraft is a Web designer, technical consultant, and freelance writer. His website is Pagewizard Web Design. You can contact Will at will@pagewizardwebdesign.com.
Cite this Site
copy text (above) for proper citation
Recommended Reading
- Tufts Grants Rights for Mileage-Increasing Transportation Technology to Electric Truck
Tufts University has optioned rights to a technology that can recharge the batteries of any hybrid electric and electric-powered vehicle while it is driven. The Tufts-developed technology could increase by 20 percent to 70 percent the miles per gallon or total driving range performance of vehicles like the Honda Civic, Ford Escape, and Toyota Prius hybrids and the Tesla Motors and Phoenix Motorcars electric vehicles.
- U Florida and Cyntellect Collaborate to Unlock Mysteries of Cancer Stem Cells
The University of Florida has entered into a research agreement with life sciences company Cyntellect. The university's Interdisciplinary Center for Biotechnology Research will work with the company to focus on a variety of research areas including the purification and analysis of cancer stem cells (CSCs), rare cells believed to be directly involved in propagating cancers.
- George Mason U Receives Grant To Deploy Intergraph Apps for Intelligence Curriculum
George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax, VA has been awarded a grant from Intergraph to enable students enrolled in GMU's Geospatial Intelligence Graduate Certificate program to use the company's geospatial production and exploitation software as part of their core curriculum.
- Institute for Cyber Security at U Texas, San Antonio Opens Incubator
The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Institute for Cyber Security (ICS) has launched a new Internet security incubator. The incubator was developed to commercialize promising technologies that address major cyber security and privacy issues. The first companies to enter the incubator are Denim Labs and SafeMashups.
- ISO/IEC Publishes Office Open XML Standard
ISO/IEC has published the Office Open XML (OOXML) file format standard, formally known as ISO/IEC 29500:2008. It describes file formats originally designed by Microsoft for its Office 2007 productivity suite, which are used in presentation, spreadsheet and word processing applications.
- Dynamics NAV 2009 ERP Coming Next Month
Microsoft exec Kirill Tatarinov Wednesday described some new features to expect in the forthcoming Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009 enterprise resource planning solution. He gave the keynote address at Microsoft's Convergence 2008 event in Copenhagen, Denmark.
