IMHO, the Appium Desktop is a fine proof of concept.
That said, I would move to the node or source code version once you get the go ahead for a real project. Desktop traditionally does not keep up with latest OS’s, bug fixes, etc.
Hrm. I was worried you would say that. If you look at the instructions for Native Android Automation, it is so complex!
I was planning on using Java. The instructions say I need to install ruby from get.ruby.io, update all gems, then uninstall appium libraries, then install them again with different specs, oh, and then flaky gem, brew, nodejs, ant, maven, and then appium via git and npm. And then authorize-ios (of you are going to do IOS later).
After that? Then we can get busy installing all the Android requirements, the SDK manager, emulator @tutorial.
Oh, and then the read-eval-print tool with the Appium Ruby Console.
What I want to know: What do the professional developers of Appium use as a setup, say, those folks in Sauce Labs? I want to imitate that exactly.