On Wednesday, 15 June 2016 at 10:58:04 UTC, Martin Nowak wrote:
> So I'm wondering if in 2016 someone really needs an offline copy of a website shipped with a binary release?

For offline browsing, Windows and Linux users can use Zeal [1] which is FOSS, and macOS users can use Dash[2], which is free as in beer. Both of which can use this D docset [3].

So no, there's no reason to maintain the chm docs.

[1] https://zealdocs.org/
[2] https://kapeli.com/dash
[3] https://github.com/Kapeli/Dash-User-Contributions/tree/master/docsets/D#readme

On Thursday, 16 June 2016 at 02:32:05 UTC, Jack Stouffer wrote:
> On Wednesday, 15 June 2016 at 10:58:04 UTC, Martin Nowak wrote:
>> So I'm wondering if in 2016 someone really needs an offline copy of a website shipped with a binary release?
>
> For offline browsing, Windows and Linux users can use Zeal [1] which is FOSS, and macOS users can use Dash[2], which is free as in beer. Both of which can use this D docset [3].
>
> So no, there's no reason to maintain the chm docs.
>
> [1] https://zealdocs.org/
> [2] https://kapeli.com/dash
> [3] https://github.com/Kapeli/Dash-User-Contributions/tree/master/docsets/D#readme

Interesting, is this generated from the html pages?

On Thursday, 16 June 2016 at 11:04:48 UTC, Martin Nowak wrote:
> On Thursday, 16 June 2016 at 02:32:05 UTC, Jack Stouffer wrote:
>> For offline browsing, Windows and Linux users can use Zeal [1] which is FOSS, and macOS users can use Dash[2], which is free as in beer. Both of which can use this D docset [3].
>>
>> So no, there's no reason to maintain the chm docs.
>>
>> [1] https://zealdocs.org/
>> [2] https://kapeli.com/dash
>> [3] https://github.com/Kapeli/Dash-User-Contributions/tree/master/docsets/D#readme
>
> Interesting, is this generated from the html pages?

Yeah

On Wednesday, 15 June 2016 at 10:58:04 UTC, Martin Nowak wrote:
> It's a huge maintenance effort for us to produce the chm files.
> We no longer generate documentation on Windows, but just for the chm generation we have dedicated tools [¹] to create an index (from a json generated via ddoc) and copy the html files.
> So I'm wondering if in 2016 someone really needs an offline copy of a website shipped with a binary release?
>
> https://github.com/dlang/dlang.org/pull/1374
>
> [¹]:
> https://github.com/dlang/dlang.org/blob/7cc6e938154f90aa49fa6451a85b13e35ab2de99/chmgen.d

I still use CHM document as it is absolutely the best solution compared to anything else. I think it is a mistake to compare CHM with PDF... They are made for different things...

If people want to get rid of PDF, then I propose we start providing ePub instead of CHM. That could be the only sane alternative to the CHM we have.

> I still use CHM document as it is absolutely the best solution compared to anything else. I think it is a mistake to compare CHM with PDF... They are made for different things...

I forgot to mention - I use CHM on Linux. It is not my fault that opensource community could not come up with a better or/and standardised solution... The only standard solution for this that Linux has are man pages - clearly not suitable this purpose! Other, better solutions are there, but are not adopted by all - Gnome has one format, KDE another, etc... CHAOS. Therefore, I decided to use CHM.

On 17/06/2016 1:22 AM, Dejan Lekic wrote:
>> I still use CHM document as it is absolutely the best solution
>> compared to anything else. I think it is a mistake to compare CHM with
>> PDF... They are made for different things...
>
> I forgot to mention - I use CHM on Linux. It is not my fault that
> opensource community could not come up with a better or/and standardised
> solution... The only standard solution for this that Linux has are man
> pages - clearly not suitable this purpose! Other, better solutions are
> there, but are not adopted by all - Gnome has one format, KDE another,
> etc... CHAOS. Therefore, I decided to use CHM.

It's doable to have epub generation[0].
PDF can do a heck a lot more then what most people even know[1].

[0] http://master.dl.sourceforge.net/project/d-apt/files/doc/2.071.0/dlangspec-2.071.0.epub
[1] http://help.adobe.com/en_US/acrobat/acrobat_dc_sdk/2015/HTMLHelp/#t=Acro12_MasterBook%2FJS_API_AcroJSPreface%2FJS_API_AcroJSPreface.htm

On Thursday, 16 June 2016 at 02:32:05 UTC, Jack Stouffer wrote:
> On Wednesday, 15 June 2016 at 10:58:04 UTC, Martin Nowak wrote:
>> So I'm wondering if in 2016 someone really needs an offline copy of a website shipped with a binary release?
>
> For offline browsing, Windows and Linux users can use Zeal [1] which is FOSS, and macOS users can use Dash[2], which is free as in beer. Both of which can use this D docset [3].
>
> So no, there's no reason to maintain the chm docs.
>
> [1] https://zealdocs.org/
> [2] https://kapeli.com/dash
> [3] https://github.com/Kapeli/Dash-User-Contributions/tree/master/docsets/D#readme

Thanks for the Zeal, I did not know about it.
Both Gnome and KDE have their "help" tools that more/less do the same.

On Thursday, 16 June 2016 at 13:18:23 UTC, Dejan Lekic wrote:
> I still use CHM document as it is absolutely the best solution compared to anything else.

What's the main difference between it and just pointing your browser at the downloaded html files? Search and index?

> What's the main difference between it and just pointing your browser at the downloaded html files? Search and index?

Well, seach and index are not the only operations you need.

One of the common operation with every CHM viewer is to bookmark something for an example. I've just checked the Zeal application and realised it does not have this simple feature (or I could not find it).

Also, I want it to open at the same place I was last time I used the viewer...

Simply run KChmViewer and open the CHM document from DMD package with it, and compare it with any other similar solution...

On Wednesday, 15 June 2016 at 11:54:31 UTC, captaindet wrote:
>> It's a huge maintenance effort for us to produce the chm files.
>>...
>> So I'm wondering if in 2016 someone really needs an offline copy of a
>> website shipped with a binary release?
>
> i am very glad the chm file exists whenever i am not online, e.g. on a plane or train (free wifi is not a given everywhere). finding something in the local html is quite awkward w/o google...
>
> if it really takes up too much time i will understand if it has to go too, especially if i a am the minority. just saying: i do use it occasionally, and whenever i do it is a big help.
>
> /det

+1