Description:
The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and its related specifications seem likely to be the technologies that really bring inexpensive Internet connectivity to the masses; many studies predict that wireless Internet devices will outnumber traditional computer terminals within a couple of years. The Wireless Application Protocol: Writing Applications for the Mobile Internet explores the WAP suite of protocols and languages, taking an approach that suits systems architects and organizational visionaries as well as software developers. The authors--participants in the standards-setting WAP Forum--explain how the pieces of the WAP development and delivery puzzle fit together before dissecting those pieces individually. Wireless Markup Language (WML) and Wireless Markup Language Script (WMLScript) get the most careful and complete documentation. The coverage of WML here is richer in text than in typical markup language references. The authors have chosen to explain each of WML's smallish set of tags with lots of commentary, code samples, and illustrations, as well as a table that lists legal attributes and their valid values. The WMLScript documentation is less elaborately embroidered on the level of individual functions, but a sizable section on usability and design standards--complete with photographs of various interfaces rendered by different physical devices--more than compensates. Plus, the authors cover push messaging and Wireless Telephony Applications (WTA), subjects that other popular WAP books neglect. A serious developer of solutions that employ WAP, WML, and their related technologies will already have several books on the subject (including, probably, Professional WAP and Beginning WAP, WML, and WMLScript). This one has earned a place on the shelf. --David Wall Topics covered: The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) specification (version 1.2.1) and the application-development standards that ride on top of it. Coverage includes Wireless Markup Language (WML), Wireless Markup Language Script (WMLScript), push messaging and Wireless Telephony Applications (WTA). Sections address design and efficiency issues.
| 
