Fans of Forta's other books--he's best known for his work with ColdFusion, and indeed this book includes a section on integrating ColdFusion into a WAP application--will recognise this book's tutorial style. It relies heavily on example code, usually in the form of independently functional programs rather than disembodied snippets. It's helpful to be able to run a program that does nothing but show how, for instance, a selection list works. Commentary is similarly handy. It makes frequent reference to other languages, pointing out ways in which WML and WMLScript are similar to and different from Web development languages. --David Wall

Topics covered: the application development languages--Wireless Markup Language (WML) and WMLScript--associated with the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) 1.2 specification. The basics of syntax and structure are covered, followed by detailed exploration of images, user input mechanisms and electronic mail integration. The authors give their opinions on "best practices", and present several complete applications. WML and WMLScript references appear, too.