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, providing a well-rounded education of the network technology and content development issues.

Since 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 synchronised 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, and WMLScript--the wireless counterpart to JavaScript--is thoroughly covered.

It's clear that the wireless Web is in any and every Web developer's future. Wireless Web Development is a great first step in getting educated. --Stephen W. Plain