Curl has an impressive set of features. Starting with portability, Curl applications run on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, although the Curl IDE currently runs only on Windows and Linux. There are different client RTEs for each platform, but the Curl source doesn't change from platform to platform, and is compiled just-in-time on the client. I'm not aware of any compatibility issues among platforms, but I haven't tested this firsthand.

The Bottom Line Curl 5.0 Curl, curl.com/ Very Good  8.6 criteria score weight Capability 9 30% Ease of development 8 30% Documentation 8 15% Performance 9 15% Value 9 10% Cost: Curl/Personal, free; Curl/Personal Server, free for Internet use. Curl/Pro, $598 per seat, including Curl/Pro RTE testing license. Enterprise deployment licenses start at $12,000 per URL per year, plus $150 per named user per year. SaaS deployment licenses, $12,000 per URL per year plus $20 per user per year. Internet Pro deployment licenses start at 10 cents an application launch. OEM deployment licenses are a value-based percentage with a floor. Platforms: Windows 98/NT, or later, with IE 5 or later, Netscape 4.7x or 7.2, or Firefox; RedHat 9, SuSE 9, or Turbolinux 10 or 11 with Mozilla, Konqueror or Firefox; Beta viewer (no IDE) for Mac OS X with Safari or Firefox Bottom Line: Curl has several attractive features as an RIA environment, including excellent performance, strong graphics support, and good data handling. Although the Curl language, library, and tools are not hard to learn, they will be new to most programmers. Curl should be on most companies' RIA evaluation lists. About our Reviews and Scoring Methodology

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For data management and display, Curl 5.0 has RecordSet, RecordFilter, RecordSort, RecordView, RecordGrid, and RecordForm objects. It can manipulate structured data internally, fetch and store data in a database, and work with data stored in files on the client. The typical way of connecting a Curl RecordSet to a database server is to use the provided Java database connection servlet and a JDBC driver. JDBC drivers are available for a wide assortment of databases, and a JDBC-ODBC bridge is available for Windows.

Web-service friendly
Curl ships with XML, SAX (Simple API for XML), and SOAP classes. Further, it has a free add-on, the Curl Web Services SDK, that provides WSDL, XML Document Object Model, and XPath functionality. This add-on can import WSDL and generate a Curl package that lets you call a Web service through Curl classes and methods without having to explicitly deal with SOAP requests and responses.

A less capable version of this, the Curl XML Document Model Library, was all that was publicly available for download at the time of this review. The prerelease WSDK 1.0.4 that I reviewed was provided by Curl support, and an updated build of this will be available for download in the fall.

The Curl IDE features dockable panes and a layout reminiscent of Visual Studio or Eclipse. Besides a code editor and debugger, the IDE has a VLE (Visual Layout Editor). All of the above are free.

The Pro IDE adds source-code control integration, performance profiling and coverage analysis tools, and the ability to create VLE extensions, that is, add custom controls to the VLE. Professional Server features include HTTPS support (SSL/TLS [Transport Layer Security] encryption), complex concurrency (for high performance), applets with privilege (to allow operations beyond the sandbox), pCurl encryption (which hides your source code and improves performance), single sign-on (which lets a Curl applet get credentials from a Web site), and integration with the Mercury Interactive QuickTest Professional tools.

Curl may well be the most interesting computer language that you don't already know. Given that you can use the personal tools free forever and deploy the results on the Internet for free, the only barrier to evaluating it would be finding the time, and you may be pleasantly surprised at how quickly you pick it up. If you get serious about Curl and need to evaluate the professional tools and runtime, you can download a free 60-day trial. Curl should certainly be an option to consider for your next RIA project.