Difference Between WML and HTML

WML vs HTML

WML (Wireless Markup Language) and HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) are markup languages, the main function of which is to serve content from web sites. The main difference between WML and HTML is the target devices that they aim to serve. HTML was created to serve content to desktop computers, which have a lot of processing power to spare in parsing and rendering the content. When the internet began to expand to mobile phones, it became very apparent that mobile phones do not have the processing power, screen size, and color range to actually work with HTML. Thus, WML was created as an alternative to HTML in serving web content to mobile phones.

WML is very limited with the things that it can do. This is necessary in order to simplify the flow of the page and to minimize the amount of processing needed in rendering the page. It is also not beneficial to include many or large images into a WML page as it would probably not be discernable on the very small screens of mobile phones. On the other hand, HTML is quite full featured, even in its earlier versions. Coders can place multiple images, animations, frames, tables, and a whole lot more to their pages. Compared to other tasks done with computers, rendering web pages is relatively very simple and would not load the processor too much.

As technology evolves, computers and mobile phones are also getting better and better. Color and high resolution screens become more and more common in mobile phones; especially with smartphones. This improvement means that more phones are able to process HTML pages. The problem with small screens is partially solved by providing the user with the ability to zoom in and out of pages. This led to the gradual shift from WML to HTML.

Today WML is rarely used and often just as an alternative to a main page. Smartphones, and even ordinary feature phones, now have the ability to view websites just like as you would on a computer; albeit, on a much smaller screen.

Summary:

1.WML is used on phones while HTML is used for desktop clients
2.HTML requires a lot more processing power than WML
3.WML is no longer used as much as HTML

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