Yeah - it's a huge problem. I just the other day managed to get my ancient (September 2013) ZTE Open up to 1.4 with a flash build from source. I have a Geeksphone Revolution, but I chose to run it Android (Jellybean) rather than Firefox OS / Boot to Gecko, since I already have the ZTE.
On Tue, Apr 29, 2014 at 12:26 AM, Pablo Brasero Moreno <[email protected]>wrote: > Hi all, > > I am currently working on a FxOS app. At one point during the development, > I came across a gotcha that doesn't seem to be discussed elsewhere. By > posting here, I'm not sure whether I am looking for guidance or > confirmation; just air your opinions and I'll be content :-) > > (I'm not entirely confident that this is the correct forum for this. Please > point me in the right direction if it is not). > > The question: for FxOS development, what would currently be a reasonably > safe baseline target platform? > > I'll explain. MDN has a listing of the FxOS handsets available in the > market[1]. At the time of writing, only one of these has FxOS 1.3 on it > (1.3pre, to be precise; the Geeksphone Revolution). The rest run 1.0.1 or > 1.1. > > Detection of JS capabilities has been discussed elsewhere before (eg: over > at mozilla.dev.webapi[2]), but CSS capabilities are another kind of beast. > For one flexboxes weren't supported until Firefox/Gecko 22, but FxOS 1.1 is > based on v18[4], and therefore doesn't get those. > > The lack of flexbox support is disturbing enough. Mozilla encourages using > them, by means of the Quickstart documentation[5], or using them for some > Building Blocks[6]. > > Mozilla also encourages testing FxOS applications using the App Manager, > but this gives you a minimum FxOS 1.2[6]. In order to test for 1.1 I have > to use the old Simulator, which is discontinued and may stop working soon > (the docs say I should be using Firefox 24 or 25[7], but I use it > successfully on Aurora 30 on a Mac). > > If I went by this 1.2 baseline, I wouldn't be able to run my app on my own > handset, a ZTE Open. Incidentally, the device was initially on 1.0.1 and I > upgraded it to 1.1 myself. Now I'm wondering if it was a good idea to > upgrade it at all, given that it may hide problems that my app may have > running on 1.0.1. > > For the purposes of developing my application, I have installed Firefox 18, > which I run using a profile separate from my normal browsing one. This > seems to work well for spot checks, JS unit tests, and integration tests > (for which I use Selenium). This gives me enough confidence that my app > will work in other handsets. > > Despite my current solution, my questions persist. Mozilla seems to be > encouraging developers to use 1.2 as baseline, but hardly any devices out > there run it. This problem is not mentioned on the docs, or if it is it's > not stressed at all. FxOS handsets are already being sold to the public, > and there's a risk of disappointing users with apps that don't work for > their devices, unbeknownst to the developers themselves. > > What do you people think? > > Thank you, > > [1] > > https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Firefox_OS/Developer_phone_guide/Phone_specs > [2] > > https://groups.google.com/d/msg/mozilla.dev.webapi/mQPZ-38wgy4/rYNnbZZaQsEJ(among > other discussions) > [3] https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/22.0/releasenotes/ > [4] > > https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Firefox_OS/Developer_phone_guide/Phone_specs#Firefox+OS+by+version > [5] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Apps/Design (in turn linked from > https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Apps/Quickstart) > [6] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Firefox_OS/Using_the_App_Manager > [7] > https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Firefox_OS_1.1_Simulator > > -- > Pablo Brasero Moreno > [email protected] > _______________________________________________ > dev-webapps mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-webapps > -- Twitter: http://twitter.com/znmeb; Computational Journalism on a Stick http://j.mp/CompJournoStickOverview My poltergeist can beat up your zeitgeist. _______________________________________________ dev-webapps mailing list [email protected] https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-webapps
