Business owners in SA (or targeting SA) should make sure that their web developers are well aware of this when getting a website developed for their company need to take .

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Please look into you Chrystal ball and tell us whether there will ultimately be a simple information definition language. Will HTML/XML/XHTML ultimately evolve into a universal means of exchanging information. Will some other information definition language emerge.

Modern technology relies on standards that are universal. We have a number standard in Hexadecimal. Whether technology is based on an 8 bit or 64 bit processor, programmers use hexadecimal to understand and manipulate numbers. There is also a character standard. ASCII, developed from the teletext machine’s American Standard Character Set. It is used universally. Whether you are using an 8 bit microprocessor controlled washing machine or the biggest 64 bit computer, these machines will use hexadecimal and ASCII. ASCII has some fascinating legacy characters like 06H (Bell), 05H (Enquiry) and 0CH (Form Feed which is different from either 0AH - Line feed and 0DH - Carriage Return). In spite of these quirks, ASCII (like Castle Lager) has stood the test of time.

The notable similarity in successful computer standards is that they are simple, robust and they change little over time. They are universally accepted and are never dominated and manipulated by a single monopolistic player.

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The more important issue in any case is not so much about the technology, as ultimately anything is possible, but rather on navigation and content which need to very carefully considered as the way visitors interact with handheld devices is very different to the way they view a website.

Oh and lastly…SA programmers still need to be taught the differences between html and xhtml in any case!

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It’s fairly trivial to detect the device capabilities using an open source project like WURFL:

browser_is_wap){
header(”Content-Type: text/vnd.wap.wml”);
echo ”.”\n”;
}
?>

Of course, one useful feature of XHTML is it can be manipulated as XML, so you simply use XSLT to output device-specific code for each broad class of mobile device. It’s straightforward and requires little coding, so why not? This way your upmarket XHTML Mobile site is accessible as a WAP deck for users with old handsets.

This was a requirement just a few years ago in the US for mobile content partners with AT&T/Cingular Wireless when there were still a lot of extant WML-only handsets.

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If I was developing a site at this moment I would definitely forget WML entirely. For example from Nokia all devices with a browser has supported XHTML-MP and a normal IP stack for quite a few years already. Just check Forum Nokia for example (http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/matrix_xhtml_1.html).

Of course in Africa there is a portion of refurbished handsets that still support WML, but they are at the very low end of the pyramid and I don’t see a viable business motivation to cater for them.

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