Review by Billy Barron, Delphi Consultants

"WAP Servlets: Developing Dynamic Web Content with Java and WML" (Wiley Computer Publishing; ISBN 0-471-39307-X) by John L. Cook III is a book that talks about combining WML and Servlets together so that you can have Servlets that talk to wireless phones. The title is actually a slight misnomer as the book spends much more time on WML than WAP. However, WAP is the buzzword that everyone always throws around.

I was personally disappointed since about this because I was just about to start a WAP project and was looking to learn WAP itself. When I got the book, I discovered the coverage of WAP itself was minimal. This is not a negative on the book itself, but a warning to a potential purchaser because you might not be getting the book you expect.

This book is unusual in its overall purpose as are many Wiley books. In reality, if you learn WAP/WML and Servlets separately, the combination is easy to put together. Therefore the book's primary real audience is people who do not know either Servlets or WAP/WML. If you know either one, I think you may be better served by getting a book focused on the other topic.

The book starts out by explaining the environment that WAP typically works in. Then the book explains WML. Then it bounces over to explaining Servlets. Then a couple of examples tie the two together. The book ends on a couple of related topics which are doing Push with WAP and WML Script.

The book is fairly easy to read with many diagrams and code examples. You should be able to learn the topics at hand from the book.