OK, so the epic continues. Adobe AIR SDK 28 release notes claim they include a purposeStrings-example.xml file in examples folder that shows the (otherwise undocumented) format of the xml, but the file wasn't there.
An Adobe engineer read this in my bug report and put the sample file into the beta version of AIR SDK 32, so I downloaded that and implemented the new purposeStrings approach. But my IDE, when specifying additional ADT command line parameters, places the purposeStrings.xml parameter right after the -package parameter, thus breaking the build. I found an IntelliJ-IDEA bug about this: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-193254 <https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-193254> I now have to wait on JetBrains to add support for purposeStrings to IntelliJ IDEA, or I can package IPAs from a script outside of the IDE. Adobe really didn't need to invent this purposeStrings approach at all. They could have simply fixed ADT to allow adding -e option to move localized InfoPlist.strings files directly to the IPA locale folders using IDE packaging options UI. But ADT also fails if you attempt to do that. It displays "Error: The path tr.lproj/InfoPlist.strings is restricted. Choose another name for this file." Of course Apple requires the localized files must be named InfoPlist.strings. LOL. It could have been so simple. Erik