Improve PhoneGap Desktop Documentation

[hermwong]

• FAQs
  • questions & answers to the most common issues encountered
  • can't connect with Developer App
  • network / firewall related issues
• Technical Troubleshooting
  • technical how to guides (e.g. - reset Desktop's local storage, reset Desktop's template cache)
• Compatibility Chart
  • perhaps a matrix of versions of Desktop & Developer App that will work with each other (had a few cases where people running iOS 6 version of Developer App trying to connect to Desktop 0.2.X when that particular version of Developer was too old and not compatible)

[jessemonroy650]

@hermwong
My plan was always to include the Phonegap team in my upcoming blog post (Don't Use Phonegap Desktop App) . All my work is on Linux, so I had no idea what PDA did. It took me a while to figure it out. After a recent update to the docs, it was clear what the purpose was.

However, after some time of answering THE SAME questions, it became apparent what the issue was. I open this trouble ticket months ago. If you see the comments, you can see the almost daily confusion. Format of STEP 5 is confusing for persons with English as a second language #137

Even after changes the issue continue. If you look at this document in RAW format you'll see the evolution of comments I keep making on this subject: Don't use Desktop App

To be clear, many, many developers are unaware of the difference between CLI and BUILD, let alone PDA. I like the idea, but it is clear that the only purpose of PDA is to bash the developer over the head in an effort to say "this only requires HTML, CSS and Javascript!"

On this last point, my belief is that many many developers (including seasoned developers) are left incredulous that any framework could accomplish this task. Mind you, I've been programming for 20+ years and at times I can't believe this works.

I should also note I have not finalized the title of the blog post.

[jessemonroy650]

@hermwong
Based on the confusion Desktop App causes in the other forums, I recommend it have it's own forum.

Here is the first draft of the blog post. Persons on Nitobi and Google Groups are helping with this as well. Phonegap Desktop App - What it is and is not

UPDATE 2016-04-21: Updated with feedback from Kerri Shotz (GG). Need to update with feedback from Petra V (nitobi).

Jesse

[GarthDB]

Going back to the original purpose of the issue, I broke this one out into separate, more specific issues.

• Improve PhoneGap Desktop FAQ #215
• Add PhoneGap Desktop Troubleshooting Tutorial #216
• Add PhoneGap Desktop Compatibility Chart #217

@jessemonroy650 I heard you were contacted on another channel about your blog post feedback request. If you need anything else feel free to discuss it on the forum or open a new issue.