
DevDocs - Anzhelika
http://devdocs.io/
======
johtso
If you're on a mac you might want to check out Dash
[http://kapeli.com/dash](http://kapeli.com/dash)

Very simliar goal, but offline and instant. After using it for a while it's
hard to imagine going back to reading documentation in a web-browser.

~~~
Osmium
Love Dash (and own a license), but there was sadly some controversy regarding
their new icon and "inspiration" recently. Will try and find a link...

Edit: so the old Dash icon was a free icon from
[http://www.yootheme.com/icons/freebies](http://www.yootheme.com/icons/freebies)
(the cat one). Recently this icon was replaced with a custom one, which makes
sense, except the new Dash icon seems to be heavily "inspired" by somebody
else's work -- [http://dribbble.com/shots/913643-Chrome-replacement-
icon](http://dribbble.com/shots/913643-Chrome-replacement-icon)

See the comparison here:
[http://twitpic.com/ciu8a7](http://twitpic.com/ciu8a7)

Relevant tweets:

[Dash dev]

[https://twitter.com/kapeli/status/328037766166368256](https://twitter.com/kapeli/status/328037766166368256)

[https://twitter.com/kapeli/status/328112260805451779](https://twitter.com/kapeli/status/328112260805451779)

[Icon designer]

[https://twitter.com/wakaba_en/status/328075341618892800](https://twitter.com/wakaba_en/status/328075341618892800)

Seems like the Dash dev disagrees with the icon author on where the line
between "inspiration" and "plagiarism" lies. It doesn't help that there's a
language barrier between the icon author and Dash developer.

Icon designer even proposed an alternative icon:

[http://dribbble.com/shots/1046492-Dash-app-replacement-
icon](http://dribbble.com/shots/1046492-Dash-app-replacement-icon)

But sadly it seems like this issue hasn't been rectified, but has just been
forgotten about. I only found out about this after I'd bought a license; I'm
posting this here in case someone else finds it relevant to their purchasing
decisions.

~~~
isxek
In the link for the alternative icon, the icon designer has declined to enter
any new discussions, as he felt "insulted" with the Dash developer's reactions
on Twitter. He feels any more discussion is "a waste of time."

At any rate, I wish we non-Mac users had something like Dash.

~~~
Osmium
In the interests of quoting the full context rather than just a few words,
here's what he said in full:

"Dear The Great Developer of "Dash.app".

I do not ask you anymore. I do not say anything about your icon. It's a waste
of time. But I am vindictive. Conversely, I inspired from your icon. This is
the way of my protest. This time, you do not plagiarize this my icon, please.

Sayonara さよなら."

It seems the designer is Japanese, so there might be a language/cultural
barrier too, but for what it's worth I think I would feel insulted by the Dash
developer's reactions too!

------
endgame
Hey look, it's another submission where the title conveys the exact same
amount of information as the URL.

Which is a shame, because it's actually a pretty neat-looking HTML5/css/jquery
reference.

~~~
tvon
I think it's fairly self explanatory, but the about page would have been a
better submission:

[http://devdocs.io/about](http://devdocs.io/about)

~~~
nmcfarl
I’m not sure. I’d say allowing some editorialization in the title would have
made a better submission.

Say, title: "DevDocs: An organized, and consistent interface to Web
Documentation", with the same URL.

~~~
tvon
You're right, I misunderstood the complaint.

------
afarrell
This is awesome and I'm going to start using it today.

Suggestions: Look at what AaronO built and use it to add other sources.

Keep the current interface free, but let me pay some amount of money per year
(or month?) to create an account and configure what sources it looks through.
I'd like to have it search through django, python, git, and bootstrap docs as
well.

~~~
Thibaut
Thanks for the idea.

I built a flexible scraper for downloading and filtering the docs so you can
except more sources to be added soon.

Toggling docs on and off is also on my todo list.

~~~
inkel
Please add plain DOM documentation. I use jQuery, but I also use other libs or
none at all, and having access to the DOM API would be wonderful.

------
AaronO
I built something similar a few weeks ago: [http://doks.io](http://doks.io)

(It supports all major languages and frameworks) (And it's open source !)

~~~
bliker
That is astonishing number of sources. But it is quite confusing when each
source opens in different windows with different styling.

I wish there was some universal documentation format that could be shared
among all software.

~~~
lightcatcher
I think Sphinx ([http://sphinx-doc.org/](http://sphinx-doc.org/) ) is slowly
becoming that.

------
msy
I would love an interface like this for MDN's JS documentation.

~~~
jaredgeorge
[http://dochub.io/](http://dochub.io/)

------
dewey
And if you are using Alfred (Mac) you could use
[http://wemakeawesomesh.it/alfred-dev-
doctor/](http://wemakeawesomesh.it/alfred-dev-doctor/)

~~~
WickyNilliams
I agree, dev doctor is awesome! It integrates everything on devdocs and more
(caniuse, MDN for instance). Works seemlessly with alfred, making doc lookups
_super_ quick.

Full disclosure: friends with author of dev doctor

------
WestCoastJustin
Is this something that I can host locally, using my own documents, like on an
internal network?

~~~
proexploit
Doesn't look like it. See the about page, I think that's a pretty good
indicator he intends to host it (although might be open to selling a license).

Why isn't this project open-source?

Ultimately I'd like DevDocs to provide me with some income so I can keep
improving it over the long-term. Until I figure out how to do that I've
decided to keep the project closed-source. If you have comments or ideas about
this I'd love to hear them.

------
roryhughes
Found a big bug: use up/down arrow keys to select an item on the left, then
hit right and left keys to open and close the sub-lists. But, if you hit right
twice or more it will append the sub list continuously below.

~~~
Thibaut
Indeed. Thanks for the report! I'll fix it soon.

Edit: fixed

------
skotzko
Although you have browser support covered on a doc-by-doc basis, I would find
it useful to have a rollup page by browser of gotchas. e.g. all the common JS
gotchas for IE8 (e.g. no go on client.innerWidth), IE9 not supported opacity,
etc.

Here's a ghetto example of a reference file I started after recent project
that drove me nuts which would give you the sense of what I mean:
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApBq5nqLSn9MdER...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApBq5nqLSn9MdERZWjBheFQ2QUFGVHF4LS0ydnM0bkE#gid=0)

------
alan_cx
Just a feed back: For me, I click on HTML(1) in the menu on the left, and it
expands below the page. There seems to be a thin scroll bar to the right to
scroll down, but I cant grab it to scroll down. Only arrow keys and mouse
wheel work. IMHO, scroll bar needs some work.

Edit: (1)Correction I click on HTML, _then_ HTML5. Then the list goes below
the bottom of the browser, then I cant grab the scroll bar.

Sorry for any confusion.

~~~
Thibaut
Thanks for the bug report. I'll fix it soon :)

------
mattfieldy
DocHub already exists that does the same thing but with more docs.

[http://dochub.io/](http://dochub.io/)

~~~
zorbo
For me, DevDocs is nicer at the moment:

\- It's faster

\- I don't have to select a programming language before I can start searching

\- It handles keyboard input a lot better. As soon as the page loads, I can
start typing, move down with the arrow keys and activate a selection with the
enter key.

~~~
alan_cx
Sure but it seems far less content. Maybe speed will suffer as content
increases. Sites like this, IMHO, are about content, not speed.

~~~
rrrene
Never underestimate the importance of responsiveness in user interfaces,
especially when those interfaces are used look something up.

------
chris_wot
Very cool - but when I'm on an iPad you keep bring up the keypad because you
focus on search. Can you fix that?

------
ajanuary
It seems odd that something that's just fetching and displaying snippets of
HTML doesn't have a non-js fallback. But from the About it looks like this is
a personal project made public in case anyone else finds it useful.

------
niutech
There has been a nice predecessor since 2006:
[http://www.gotapi.com](http://www.gotapi.com) and
[http://start.gotapi.com](http://start.gotapi.com)

------
dfasoebg
Really nice! It would be usable if it was free software so I could add docs
for the different libs&langs I'm using. When it's closed, it's sadly not
usable (although a very nice show).

------
tomphoolery
Your browser version checker thing is wrong.

I am using WebKit nightly (which _should_ be categorized under "Safari 5.1+"),
and it gave me a warning that said my browser was unsupported. As a user of a
potentially unstable browser, I don't mind when sites freak out because it's
usually something I can report back to the WebKit team. So I'd really like to
see if my bleeding-edge Safari (I guess this would be 6 technically?) can run
DevDocs… :)

~~~
Thibaut
Yes, sorry. I deployed a bug that blocked all browsers for a couple of
minutes. It's fixed.

------
FreshCode
Any chance of releasing the theme within a styling framework like Bootstrap?
This would be amazing for some of our internal tools and documentation.

Edit: I see the author responded to "Why isn't this open-source?" on the About
page, [http://devdocs.io/about](http://devdocs.io/about)

------
momo1
This looks very promising!

Here's a suggestion. My favourite source for Rails docs is apidock.com because
it allows people to comment and supply examples. It would be really nice if
devdocs could incorporate something like that or perhaps even a wikipedia-like
way to update the docs.

------
Flenser
In Chrome if I right click in the search box and add it as a search engine it
doesn't work :(

------
frankcaron
As a long time technical writer, allow me to convey my sheer joy at how
awesome this is. Issues with the submission and its descriptiveness in terms
of HN standards aside, this is super wicked awesome and makes me warm and
fuzzy inside.

~~~
Thibaut
Thanks! :)

------
bobsy
Looks awesome. Very useful.

How is this site made? It looks like changing pages are ajax transitions but
the url is changing at the top? Could someone point me in the direction of how
this is made please. Would be really interested.

~~~
nekgrim
It's the HTML5 History API.

[https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/Guide/DOM/Manip...](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/Guide/DOM/Manipulating_the_browser_history)

~~~
bobsy
Thanks a lot. I have a seen a few sites like this and have been wondering.
Sites using this feel like they load so much faster and more fluidly.

------
jpreiland
The nav tree doesn't seem to remember which items I had expanded if I collapse
the parent and then open it back up. Is this intentional?

Very cool resource, though. Thanks!

~~~
Thibaut
Thanks! It's intentional because I haven't had the time to implement it yet.
;)

------
CoachRufus87
Reminds me of: [http://ruby-docs.com/](http://ruby-docs.com/)

------
scottohara
Oh this is so much nicer to read through than other sites.

Favorited!

------
thameera
TIL that sup is obsolete HTML, while sub is not.

~~~
Thibaut
Added to my todo list. Thanks!

------
zv
Sweet. Can you please add javascript reference?

~~~
Thibaut
Thanks. I built a very flexible scraper underneath. JS/DOM docs are coming
soon.

------
waawal
This is really great! I will probably use this.

Thanks

