src=”image.jpg?w=500&h=300″

Now, I’m about to make the site reponsive. Say I wanted to create a layout for tablets, in which the above image should be 250×150. How could I easily and automatically do that? I still don’t want the image size to be generated based on the screen/device width, as that would make it too big. That’s only purposeful when we get down to mobile sizes, when deciding the size of the image based on screen/device width makes more sense.

Maybe a script that created a new image with the same width as its container (if the container width is set in %, would there be a way to get the max-width?). I could then set the image to max-width:100% and control the size using CSS media queries.

When it comes to its strategy for smartphones, Nokia has historically not been very convincing regarding the aforementioned points.

It started with Communicators; they ran GEOS. Before Nokia stabilized the platform, it changed to EPOC for newer models of Communicators, forking into Symbian S80. Symbian was considered promising for the entire range of smartphones, but it was found necessary to fork another branch into S60, which underwent several generations. Not for all smart devices, however: with Internet tablets, Nokia embarked into Maemo. Which was abandoned for Meego. While a switch was made from S60 to S^3. And now, everything is shelved in favour of Windows Phone.

Seven different platforms for smart devices in a period of 15 years.

Whether Nokia either did not understand the role played by software in its business, or whether it was incapable of reigning in the management fiefdoms in Espoo, Tampere and London, the main result is that it dispersed its efforts in way too many directions. I suspect exasperated developers are now entering a “wait and see” mode in order to ascertain whether Nokia is really serious about a long-term OS strategy this time.

My first GSM phone was a Nokia Communicator 9001i purchased without a contract (or SIM) on a developer deal. I used that phone on VoiceStream (now part of T-Mobile) and had two further Communicators until they exceeded my pocket-book. I am now a delighted Windows Phone 7 user and the ecosystem prospect intrigues me.

As a C/C++ developer, I am fascinated by what you say about Symbian and QT, especially QTWebKit. I am going to have to rethink this in the context of some interoperability experiments and reference implementations I am entertaining.

Finally, your appraisal has me thing that there are far more prospects for synergy in the Nokia-Microsoft arrangement than I and most commentators appreciate. That’s intriguing. It is going to be an interesting few years.

Good luck

My name is Renee and I am a web programmer for a company called american legend.
I got to know your blog through one of the web forum you had discussion long time ago. Here is the link of the webforum. — http://tech.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/wmlprogramming/message/23448

Yes, I am trying to get idea how to xquery wurfl file in classic asp. the link you have provded– http://wurfl.cvs.sourceforge.net/wurfl/tools/asp/ actually worked couple weeks ago and it did help me a lot. But the link does not work anymore when I tried today. I am just wondering if I can still gain the access to these asp pages?

I know you probably are very busy. I really appreciate your time of reading this letter.

Thank you ,

Renee Wang

In fact, if we really had it figured out we’d use all three in harmony to create Semantic Mobile Agents… but we’re not quite there yet.

Think about it, WML defines a strict Deck -> Card -> Data (content) relationship. If every widget were to use WML (probably a more powerful version, call it RDF/WML) as the data markup, then we could have URI-indexed data Card Decks all over the web with interesting, well-defined data presentations (by then it would probably be serialized in JSON as W3C finalizes it, unless a new markup preference emerges in the ADD-like trends of the web community).

Mashups could then finally become significantly easier (to the point that basic data integrations could eventually be automated by code), and widgets could be built/customized using progressively enhanced HTML5 building blocks.

It sounds like a pipedream, but I see the effective combination of WML “philosophy” (well-defined user interactions that minimize network requests by containing multi-tiered data), Widgets (write once, run-anywhere [that can access the web] client-side code), and HTML5 (interactive, self-contained, visually appealing web application presentation layer) as being the key towards getting to a place where the Mobile space is no longer a nightmare and monopolized profit-center that changes every other year, but a clear success case for ubiquitous information access and harmonized development environment for humanity to move forward into the 21st century of consciousness and awareness.

(Ok, the automated part is still probably a pipedream… but hey if we can access the web in space we’re making some progress into inter-galaxy communication at least! Can user-controlled agent automation really be that far off?)

Absolutely. The browser should send more context about who is using the device, what the device is capable of, and exactly where it is.

Every time I see one of these debates (great post) I’m reminded of the core problem – devcap – or real time device capability. The more you have the better off your response will be.

Just because my phone is capable of using file format X doesn’t necessarily mean I want to receive your file in format X. I might want it in format Y anyway, because I prefer my third party media player instead of the default player. Or because I plan to copy the file to another device later on. Or because I object to the type of DRM used by format X. Etcetera.

Device type is a nice extra, but what a browser should really tell the server is what type of content the user wants to receive, which may be quite different from the default settings of the device.