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Comment by suyash | Hacker News Reader

What is the advantage of creating Firefox OS using Cordova (if you're only creating firefox os apps)?

If you all you need for firefox os apps are: html, css, js then why do I need to add additional cordova library? The big plus of Cordova is you can use HTML5 and write apps that run on other platforms where HTML5 is not natively supported but Firefox OS claims to be HTML5 first.

Cordova seems useless for FireFox OS apps..specially if I'm not using Cordova for any other platform, since performance wise it's not as fast as native on Android/iOS.

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There is no advantage of using Cordova if you're only creating Firefox OS apps.

The advantage is if you are already using Cordova to write cross-platform HTML apps, you can simply run `cordova platform add firefoxos` and it'll run on Firefox OS now (barring any issues with the API shims).

Eventually, the Web APIs supported in Firefox OS will hopefully become the standard APIs for hardware access, and Cordova will change their APIs to match it, and in the end you will just need to write apps against the Web APIs and we can get it to run everywhere. But we are not there yet.

>What is the advantage of creating Firefox OS using Cordova (if you're only creating firefox os apps)?

I suppose the advantage would be the ability to have your app run on the current biggest app stores, and a possible up-and-coming popular app store.

I'm assuming Mozilla is aware that most developers don't want to create apps that only run on Firefox OS, since it has such a small install base. But if they show how easy it is to write cross-platform apps they can get some traction.

I think you are on the right path: If you're making an app exclusively for Firefox OS, wrapping it in Cordova is not the path I would take.

However, if you're also planning on submitting it to the iOS app store, then making a Cordova app is useful.

Similarly, if you already have a Cordova app that you submitted to iOS and Android's stores, then you are now able to turn it also into a Firefox OS app fairly easily without having to fork your entire project.

It seems to me you answered your own question.

> What is the advantage of creating Firefox OS using Cordova (if you're only creating firefox os apps)?

The post doesn't seem to say anything about that. I figure this would just be one step for your Cordova app. You would also use it to target Android or iOS (I don't know enough about Cordova to know if iOS is a target).

Cordova is good because you can make the app in HTML and then publish it to be multi-platform (i.e. android and ios). This is just adding a platform to that process.

The fact that the platform they are adding already running apps in the same framework you've written your mockup in is secondary. Wrapping an HTML app into a firefoxOS app is fairly simple, but this will now handle that process for you.

Phonegap Build has some useful features for packaging, debugging and distribution that could eventually become available to Firefox OS Cordova apps.

It simplifies your life if you don't need quality (tailored platform experience). Makes it simpler to tick the mark that you have a version of app you don't really care about on every platform.

The advantage is of Cordova is leverage the web as a framework to build cross-platform mobile apps. FirefoxOS just became another supported platform.

That's all the point.

The ability to also build the app for Android, iOS etc. with no or minor code tweaks?

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