I think Zope already does this.

-- MartinCleaver - 05 Jun 2002

Probably not that easy in practice - WML is somewhat different to HTML, so there would be many small changes required throughout the TWiki code. It could perhaps be done as a plugin by taking over rendering early, or very late (just transforming HTML to WML).

By next year, WAP 2.0 phones will be quite common - this version supports XHTML Basic with a few extensions, which is probably a better long term target for TWiki, which is already aiming at XHTML in any case. Having used phones with WAP 1.1 and 1.2, I am very unimpressed with browser implementations, gateway problems, badly designed sites (e.g. disabling the Back button!) and so on - I now don't use WAP at all, since I have HTML browsing from a Palm device over a Bluetooth link to a GPRS mobile phone, i.e. I can use any one of five competing web browsers on the Palm with a much nicer screen and a stylus for navigation.

The bottom line is that WAP 1.0's WML might be an interesting thing to support, but it has a limited lifetime, and phones will soon have HTML support in any case. In fact, you can already browse HTML sites via Google's WAP service.

-- RichardDonkin - 05 Jun 2002

Good points, well made

-- MartinCleaver - 09 Jun 2002

A slightly tougher aspect is that TWiki pages are made for browsers with large viewing areas, while WAP devices typcially have tiny displays. Those that have large display typically do HTML also so there is not much need for WML there. I tried to just convert some HTML pages on our web site to WML and altough I shortened them quite a lot, the result is an awful experience.

To work well pages have to be split in some fashion, in this case each comment should perhaps be a page of its own, which means TWiki needs to know about this convention. I note that if you have headings you can get TOC automatically so that may be a way to go.

-- RobinRosenberg - 10 Jun 2002

I noticed this when I was experimenting with TWikiOnWindowsCE so I think that the small screen problem will have to be addressed regardless of whether TWiki ever goes WAP.

-- MartinCleaver - 11 Jun 2002

See WirelessTWiki for some related info (re smaller screens, not about WAP). Also, it's worth noting that the SonyEricsson T68i, on sale now in Europe, includes WAP 2.0 support (i.e. full XHTML), so supporting WAP 1.1/1.2 (i.e. WML) would be of rather short term usefulness.

-- RichardDonkin - 18 Jun 2002

Smartphones such as the SonyEricsson P800 have much larger screens, almost PDA size, which makes the screen size issue less critical, although it's still important to use cut-down templates and avoid too much text on any one page.

-- RichardDonkin - 12 Apr 2003