Hello,
Interesting information Nelson. Yesterday I try installing Visual Studio in order to get the SDK and other software ready to use with my Adobe Phonegap installation, however, maybe due to the options I choose during the installation, the build file start adding the platform and create some files, but terminates with some "requeriments" error.
I will try to do more test about that. Do not forget that Phonegap provide at least three ways for Microsoft platforms: Windows, which means our apps can be deployed to Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1; Windows Phone 7, suposelly to get our app ready to deploy in that version of Windows Phone; and also Windows Phone 8, to be used in order to deploy in this Windows Phone version.
I want to try with the first option, since a phone with the Windows 8.1 operating system have a more or less affordable price. Anyway remember that, at least at the current App Builder stage, we can try EVERYTHING in a browser, that is, using the App Builder included debugger. Or open our app in a browser using the HTTP served that AB incorporate. Maybe a couple of "Open in browser buttons" are a good idea.
This is the primary intention in App Builder: everything must run in a browser or must be emulated in a browser. An example can be the Vibrate and Beep actions. These actions relies on certain Phonegap plugins, Vibration and Dialogs, however, if they are not exists, the both actions works like we can expected by vibrating the screen (with a CSS animation) or play a beep sound. This primary intention, however, can be break by certain specific actions in the future.
When such time come, certainly, we need to think in how to emulate an Android device, for example, or how to connect a device in our computer in order to debug the compiled APK app. I have a better experience doing this instead of use an emulator, since the speed of the emulators are not too fast, at least in my computer.
Following with the Windows Phone or Windows platforms, maybe can be a good idea, at least to try, to using the Adobe Phonegap Build online service. I prefer the Adobe Phonegap CLI flavour, because the results appear better and also we do not get with the limitations of the free service of Adobe. I want to get an environment ready to deploy Windows and Windows Phone apps using the Phonegap CLI and the required Microsoft Windows software stuff, SDK's, etc.