Curl as HTML/CSS
September 17, 2001
The Curl Corporation seeks to provide a single integrated solution to the problems caused by having
many different technologies co-existing in one web page. For the next few chapters we're going to consider
the Curl language from the point of view of the different technologies it seeks to replace. In this chapter,
we'll begin by discussing the functionality offered in Curl that emulates HTML and Cascading Style Sheets
(CSS). Whereas HTML pages can often contain a mishmash of markup, scripting code, and embedded
objects, it isn't enough for Curl to be able simply slot into the space that existing technologies currently
occupy, but it has to fully replace them; to provide an alternative solution, and this is exactly what it does.
This chapter will introduce the HTML/CSS like non-programmatic components of Curl. We'll look at how the
features in Curl can be used to display characters, text, stylize text and simple ways of changing the color,
weight, and positioning of the text, just as you might do with a style sheet. In addition, some of the equivalents
that Curl offers to the HTML elements such as lists, frames, and forms will be considered. However, we will
delay a detailed discussion of some of these controls until chapter 7, which covers dynamic layout.
Curl Expressions
As with most procedural based programming languages, Curl programs are created from a mixture of
expressions and statements. Before we go any further, we need to define what we mean by expressions
in this context. We're not talking about the typical variable assignment or arithmetic expressions, but
the programming structures used to display text and also to help format it.
Curl offers a range of expressions to not only help you create and format text, but also include links and
images within web pages as well. The most basic function of a web page is to display text so lets start
there, before moving onto some of the other features it offers for displaying images, tables, lists, and
other HTML like features.
Early Adopter Curl
Early Adopter Curl
Displaying Text
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