What's the purpose of WML?

Greetings Blue, welcome to Dev Shed.
Enjoy your stay...

WML is Wireless Markup Language and is based on XML.


xHTML MP or WAP2 is an extension of XHTML Basic. WML was created to make web content available to mobile devices. As phones(and PDAs etc) developed their ability to understand other languages improved and WAP2 was created...

Phones continue to develop and as you say, many new ones can understand even standard HTML.

WAP and WAP 2 have got special features that are not available on a normal web browser, for example so there is definitely an advantage to using "WAP" for mobiles.

TBH, I would skip the original WAP and go for WAP 2 (XHMTL MP) and use wap css too...

To WML or not? .

Hope this helps.

Hi Jabba,

Thanks for the response, it was helpful.

However, for arguments sake I'm going to ask "is WAP and WML really THAT useful with regard to todays modern handheld devices, that can quite easily interperate standard markups designed for the web?".

I mean, would it be so much more advantageous to use WML for mobile devices instead of straight XHTML? And would this justify the potential expenses, time and labour to produce such an alternative?

While I understand from your post that WML holds certain characteristics tailored specifically for certain mobile devices - I find it hard to understand where, in a real world application these would show?

Thanks for your understanding and patience!

Thanks.

Depends which version of WAP you are talking about.
WAP 1 - probably not any more*
WAP 2 - I would say so.

Take the example I posted. This is CSS for mobiles that limits input in certain fields.
In a web browser, you could 95% guarantee that you could use JavaScript to prevent incorrect input without leaving the page.
The % on a mobile to enforce JavaScript would be nearer 5% currently I would guesstimate.

Therefore, you do need to think about mobile input and browsing styles.
Remember, phone users probably aren't going to want to have load full picture galleries etc..
they will want scaled and tailored content to suit their needs.

* I think the older version phones will still be used for a while,
as phones with this technology are generally cheaper to buy than your N73's or whatever.
With the network development in many countries, think India and Africa over the past few years,
more and more users now have web access.
They may not have state of the art phones just quite yet!

My 2 cents....