Datasheet

Chapter 1 ✦ Introducing Curl

✦ Preventing unprivileged applets from accessing local files

✦ Protecting intellectual property by prohibiting users from viewing the Curl

source code

See Chapter 2 for more details on Curl’s security features.

Surge Control Panel

The Surge Control Panel allows the user to control runtime options for security,

debugging, and general preferences. This feature is most frequently used to allow

applets from a particular host or directory to run with privileged access.

Console window

The Console window shows system warning and error messages. Also, any mes-

sages using the

output command (normally, only used while debugging) appear in

the Console window.

Platform Independence

Curl has been explicitly designed as a cross-platform language, suitable for reaching

a wide audience across the Web. Surge only accepts Curl source code, either raw

or compressed and preprocessed in .pcurl files, and compiles each applet on the

target machine before running it. This local compilation, rather than reliance on

externally produced executables or intermediate byte-codes, permits true platform

independence.

By compiling Curl on the client machine, Surge always knows the exact run-time

environment the applet will face when executing. This allows Surge to take advan-

tage of local machine resources, such as hardware graphics rendering, when

possible, but does not depend on them. This late-binding aspect of the Curl/Surge

architecture yields better platform independence and produces faster executables.

Curl Corporation’s business approach to platform independence is equally crucial.

They are creating the Surge run time for each platform themselves. This allows Curl

Corporation to ensure that Surge works uniformly across all platforms and to avoid

the Java debacle of “write once, debug everywhere.”

Surge currently works on the vast majority of client machines, which is to say

machines that run Microsoft Windows. Curl Corporation plans to make Surge

available on Linux and Macintosh computers; eventually, it will be on PDAs and

cell phones. Visit

www.curl.com for updates on platform availability.

Interoperability

You don’t have to throw out your current Web site to use Curl. Curl content can be

used alongside, or in place of, HTML. Curl can interoperate with other tools such as

ASP, CGI scripts, and other development tools.

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