Curl Corp., the company founded by original Web author Tim Berners-Lee and Michael Dertouzos, director of the MIT Lab for Computer Science, has launched its Curl Content Language as basis for future Web page content.
Curl Content Language is an attempt at a follow-on to Berners-Lee's HTML, itself a derivative of SGML or Standard Generalized Markup Language. Curl can be embedded in an HTML page to give it interactive qualities. It resembles Sun Microsystems' Java in that it can download an applet to run on the client, making the downloaded Web page more active and less dependent on static text and images.
In addition, Curl includes features from scripting languages, such as CGI and Perl; rich two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphics; and an object-oriented programming environment, Curl Surge 1.0, said Robert A. Young, co-founder and president. Berners-Lee and Dertouzos helped found the company but are not officers or board members.
In announcing Surge 1.0, Young termed it "a true, write once; run anywhere technology," a description previously used by Java advocates.
An applet written in Curl can be delivered by a server over the Internet but "lives" on the client and works when embedded in an HTML page. It can also replace HTML altogether. The Curl Content Language can work with JavaScript embedded in an HTML document or replace JavaScript. It can talk to CGI script or Java Server Pages or Microsoft's Active Server Pages.
Curl contains a native eXtensible Markup Language parser so that a Curl applet can parse XML data downloaded directly from a server or work with processes that are based on XML, including the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP).
The Curl design runs somewhat counter to prevailing Internet architectures with its emphasis on a more powerful, richer client. The result, Young said, will be faster download times, quicker response times and richer content with animation, graphics and interactive elements.
Curl was founded in 1998, an outgrowth of the $5 million grant from the Department of Advanced Research Projects Agency to the World Wide Web Consortium and MIT for research on the Web's next generation technology. Stephen Ward, computer science professor at MIT and DARPA grant researcher, is also a founder of Curl Corp.

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