Customer Reviews

Inside WAP: Programming Applications with WML and WMLScript

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

Previous reviews are somewhat misleading: One claims that software provided with the book comes without a licence - in fact the readme on the CD gives clear and simple instructions for obtaining the necessary licence (takes about 60 seconds). Another criticizes the book for only testing applications for use with Nokia and Ericsson handsets - in fact, as a glance at the back cover could tell you, every example in the book was also tested on a Phone.com (as was) emulator.

This book presents in 430 pages an easy and efficient way oflearning WAP programming. It can also be used as a reference, as itcovers all WML and WMLScript commands in the WAPspecifications. Numerous examples (including 90 pages of Perl-CGI and35 pages of Java Servlets) with source code visualize the process andform a basis for the reader's own implementations. Excellent readingfor beginners, students, lecturers and professionals. END

I completely agree with the reviewer that mentions the book is very Euro-centric. For domenstic developers, what's needed is coverage of Openwave browsers and HDML migration. Try "Dynamic WAP application Development" instead -- it's a nice reference to issues significant to the U.S. market.

Any WAP book that only tests code on Nokia and Ericsson handsets is completely misguided. Worldwide, a vast majority of handsets contain browsers from Openwave (formerly Phone.com). Any one writing real WAP applications needs to ensure that they run well on these handsets. We're talking about Motorola, Siemens, Samsung, Alcatel, Phillips, Sanyo, Denso, LG, etc, etc, etc...

This book is very poorly organized at best, and WRONG at other times. It is clearly a product of a quick attempt at bringing a title to market without significant editing. A semi-technical proofreader could see that there are many discrepancies, which by chapter 3 had me second-guessing nearly everything that was said. Even worse, the software that comes with this book seems to require a license which is not provided, which makes it useless.