Overview

As discussed in Chapter 1, there currently are three main languages being used to program wireless devices. These are WML and WMLScript, XHTML Basic, and cHTML. WML and WMLScript have been covered in chapters 3-6, and XHTML Basic and cHTML will be covered in this chapter.

As of now, WML and WMLScript and XHTML Basic are the most widely used languages, with cHTML being used only in the I-mode service provider area. Currently WML and WMLScript and XHTML Basic are being consolidated by OMA in their WAP 2.0 Specifications. The cHTML has not been merged or consolidated yet into the WAP Specifications, but due to its similarity to XHTML Basic, this will probably happen in the future. In the mean time, both XHTML Basic and cHTML are covered in this chapter.

Both XHTML Basic and cHTML rely on the use of cgi-bin programs written in perl, java, or C++ to accomplish what WMLScript does for WML. Therefore, XHTML Basic and cHTML are languages to only develop the documents for the wireless devices browsers.