Product Description
Wireless Web Development, Second Edition provides both a substantial engineering and business background to wireless developers, covering numerous facets of wireless web software geared toward today’s mobile platforms and mobile devices. Current wireless technologies, including wireless HTML, WAP 2.0, XML, Palm’s WCA, and i-mode, are discussed in detail, with individual chapters devoted to each. Author and industry veteran Ray Rischpater places special emphasis on the differences between the Web and the wireless Web, and even between wireless devices themselves, helping the reader to better understand the engineering and interface issues that must be addressed when creating wireless web applications.
By providing the latest information about technologies that have emerged since the first edition was published (i-mode, the growing emphasis on XML in wireless, and WAP 2.0), as well as relegating to historical status those technologies that have failed the test of time (Microsoft Mobile Channels and HDML), Rischpater offers readers a comprehensive and completely updated guide to the latest wireless technologies and development strategies.
Amazon.com Review
As developers move into the still largely untapped market of the wireless Web, they must learn to create solutions that take new considerations, such as small screens and sluggish transfer speeds, into account. Wireless Web Development is an excellent introduction to the field and provides a well-rounded education of the issues of network technology and content development.
Because most readers will be coming fresh into the wireless world, author Ray Rischpater invests significant space in laying out the terrain of the wireless landscape with a look at the history of the technology, as well as the future, based on the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and the Wireless Markup Language (WML). The issue of which language to go with–HDML or WML–is handled right away: both. An excellent discussion explains the reason.
One outstanding section expounds on synchronized browser technology and the unique demands of mobile Web users. Server-side scripting, with languages such as PHP, is presented to show how to make the best use of server resources to deliver powerful content; WMLScript–the wireless counterpart to JavaScript–is covered thoroughly, too.
It’s clear that the wireless Web is in the future of any and every Web developer. Wireless Web Development is a great first step in getting educated thusly. –Stephen W. Plain
Topics covered:
- Technology history
- Wireless market profile
- User interfaces
- Performance
- Web synchronization
- Server-side scripting
- WAP
- WML
- HDML
- WMLScript
- Custom wireless applications
I found this book to be very helpful in introducing the emerging world of WAP not just in technical terms, but in the significant and interesting paradigm differences between the wireless market and the established wired web marketplace. As one of the first books on the subject in a field that is very rapidly evolving, there exists the very likely possibility that the information becomes outdated quickly. Apparently mindful of this, the book steers clear from too many ‘absolutes’ and focuses instead on general ‘how to do this’ and ‘follow this lead’ sorts of examples. Very easy reading and clear writing style. Never condescending or elitist, a no-nonsense book for professionals written without pretense. Get this book, get the referenced standards and SDK materials and keep an eye out for updates to the state of the art, and you will have gotten a good primer on developing for this arena.
Rating: 4 / 5