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Because there is no current book on Curl 5.0 ( the best of those in print is 2.0, which is no longer supported) and the CurlBreaker pages are somewhat dated, I will try to link a few pages here that would afford a few footfolds to someone on the cliff face of a decision when choosing an RIA framework which satisfies their SOA expectations.

Curl is the web content language from MIT; it is now associated with Sumisho Corp. Its runtime environment is called the Surge RTE. It is an AJAX alternative to JavaScript+CSS+java.
It is unlike XUL with Mozilla or the ZK ZUL. It is much more like Rebol or Seaside+Smalltalk. It is far more mature than Ruby on Rails. At version 5.0 it is as mature as java and has packages that rival a Smalltalk class hierarchy.

The best way to evaluate Curl is to download the RTE is you are a manager and also to download the IDE if you are a developer or technology specialist. If you are using only the RTE, then start at curl.com and visit the demo links; if you have the IDE, then start by opening the Curl Documentation Viewer. The IDE alone is no match for Cincom Smalltalk or Dolphin Smalltalk or not comparable to Eclipse or JetBrains Idea. Or VisualStudio. But the Documentation Viewer may be the finest. If Mozart-Oz had such a thing then the great divide might not lie between C# and java.

If you or an available resource can read Japanese or Korean, you will find several current web sites and a wide range of current business projects to review.

For Curl and XML with the DOM, there is a library available for download at curl.com. For AJAX, there are articles on XMLHttpRequest; for Web Services you will find that SOAP is covered in all of the available books and extensively in the guide from Hungry Minds.

If you are looking at Curl as your language for implementing an RIA framework, you should also be looking at Rebol and Seaside. Both have very active on-line communities. If you already have JavaScript developers you will want to look at Adobe Apollo and the GWT. If you have Java developers, you will want to look at ZK and the SpringRich project. If you think Ruby on Rails is the coming thing, then be sure you know why you chose Ruby over Smalltalk or Python.

If you have someone in senior management who says that ‘a language is just a language’ then chances are they only know one programming language. Tell them that it is only with a third language that you learn to think through problems in that language. Give them something to read on domain-specific languages ( don’t mention DSL, because they will have cable.) If you recognize yourself then learn Smalltalk, Scheme, Prolog, Rebol, OCaml or Haskell and tackle a problem that you don’t understand. Read something on multi-paradigm programming.

You only have so many projects in a career. Don’t let too many be steered by managers with buzzwords or by the need for the latest thing. Developers who are ‘purists’ who only work in C# or only work in Java are programmers. If they have risen to being architects then they likely could use a sabbatical.

Then there is object-orientation. The point in business is usually not the objects, but the transactions. As an approach it was not called ‘class-orientation’ or ‘hierarchy-orientation’ or ‘inheritance-orientation.’ Just as ‘relativity’ should have been called ‘invariant theory’, OOP should have had a moniker that reflected its origins and objectives.

The great divide in America is between .NET and J2EE. The Scala language may serve to erode that some. It often runs along a fault line: Microsoft versus *nix. Some corporations have too much politics and some also have too much of what goes with politics.

But if you have the elbowroom, take time to assess Curl as a web content language.

If you know you must go with Java, nothing says that JavaScript must be added to the mix, so look at ZK. If you know you must go with .NET, nothing should dictate that C# is the only language to use. Read something on multi-paradigm.

If you know that your problem domain is inherently challenging and your project will determine competitive advantage for your business, then look carefully at Oz. Get a copy of CTM for a lead developer. If your project will involve RDF, find out about the JPL for SWI and check the status of the XSB project.

Now on to Curl.