Page 4: Understanding Curl

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Understanding Curl’s Characteristics

So, what are the special characteristics of the Curl language described in this manual? Let’s begin with a quick overview of Curl.

Simple Application Development Language

Curl is a Web programming language. Curl combines the special characteristics of many different languages, such as the document format and image layout capabilities of a mark-up language, the ability to describe procedures, including actions and processing, in the same way as a procedure-oriented language, and the easy re-use of modules that is afforded by object-oriented languages. Curl is the only language that combines the features of all these other languages. It greatly simplifies the development, revision, and expansion of applications.
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Reduced Server Load and Better Response

Curl can be used to create applications that perform processing on the client side. The server is only accessed when necessary. So, compared to conventional Web applications that rely on a server to perform processing, Curl greatly reduces the load on a server. Screen transitions, data addition, and the creation of graphs and forms can all be handled by the client, meaning that there is less communication with the server which leads to improved response times.


Ergonomic user interface

Curl provides a full set of user interface components for building easy-to-use applications, as well as providing capabilities such as function key assignment, and drag and drop.

Interaction with other servers and Web services

Direct system interaction is possible between Curl and other servers and Web services.


In addition to the above, Curl offers many convenient functions including online execution and printing.

Curl IDE and Curl/Pro IDE

This manual explains the development environment and programming using Curl IDE. In addition to the free Curl IDE development environment, there is also the Curl/Pro IDE version, which is available to purchase. Curl/Pro IDE is aimed at the creation and deployment of large-scale Curl applications, and incorporates additional functionality such as https support, complex concurrency, single sign-on, running with privilege, encryption and pcurl support.

A detailed explanation of the features supplied with the Curl/Pro IDE appears in the "Getting Started" section of the Curl Developer's Guide documentation that is included with the Curl IDE.