Making an HTML5 application for both Android and iOS

Question

I was checking out a video tutorial on HTML5 using Dreamweaver to do Android and iOS apps (using Phonegap) and it clearly mentioned that you need a Mac to debug and simulate for iPhone, iPod, etc. Is there any way around this?

I really want to develop apps for iOS and android (more iOS) using HTML5 but what I need to know is if you develop an app with HTML5 and debug it in an android environment, is it still portable to iOS?

My apologies if this question seems a bit ignorant but none of my google searches return results that answered my question. Maybe I'm not even asking the right question.

Answer 1

In principle, an HTML5 application should behave the same on any device.

But there are small (and some not so small) implementation differences across different architectures/platforms. The most important factor to consider is the touch gestures that the iPhone provides, that some Android phones don't and vice-versa.

On the other hand, HTML5 is only a front-end. To build a functional application you will almost certainly need a back-end. HTML5 provides some persistence mechanisms but they are very limited.

The last (minor) thing to consider is the wrapper you need to display the HTML5. It will be different for Android and iOS.

You're better off writing a web-based application with a server back-end and letting your users access it from whatever device over their browser.