Friday, October 11, 2013

Phonegap Diaries: Summary

Here's a bullet point summary of my lessons learned.

Bright Spots

  • Phonegap lives up to its promise
  • JQuery Mobile also lives up to its promise.  It game me a better UI and excellent portability
  • Translation from Java to Javascript is not too difficult.
  • There exist real unit testing tools for Javascript

Disappointments

  • <audio> tag and its API had spotty implementation (not working on iPad2 and Galaxy devices).  Why it works on some devices (iPhone4 w. iOS6) is beyond me.
  • JQM documentation needs significant improvement
  • Apple process for releasing to iTunes store is both lengthy and bizarre
  • Lost all i18n capabilities using HTML5 / javascript

Gotchas

  • iOS upgrade on a device is irreversible
  • stackoverflow.com is good source of info but can mess you up:
    •             right answer to a different problem
    •             right answer for a specific version of JQM (or phonegap, or css, ...)
  • javascript type system is tricky.  
    • For example $mobile.changePage("problem_screen?newProblem=false") cases a transition to the problem screen.  The parameter passed is 'false'.  But 'false' evaluates to true.  Huh? 'false' is a string that needs to be converted to Boolean false.

Unsolved problems

  • Can all information for platform generation emanate from "config.xml?"
  • What is the best way to detect and report javascript errors?
  • What can be done to speed up application load time (5-8 seconds)?

Plans for the Future

I plan future versions of Twentyfour Challenge that include these features:
  • a new level using four numbers
  • a "give me a hint" function during game play
And I'm waiting for feedback from a couple of middle school math teachers whom I know.

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