
Dash – Beautiful instant offline docs for almost everything - AlexMuir
http://kapeli.com/dash?hn=1
======
XorNot
In my experience (using Zeal - which is the Linux QT port of Dash and uses the
same repos) the docs generally seem to have some glaring oversights at the
moment.

Possibly Zeal's search just isn't as good yet, but I had a heck of a time
finding things about Python which are trivial to locate on the website through
Google.

Speaking of:
[http://zealdocs.org/download.html](http://zealdocs.org/download.html)

Dash-docs for Linux, PPA for Ubuntu/Mint available! It uses the exact same
documentation sets and supports downloading in app.

~~~
toyg
Having just built a docset for Python 2.2.1 [1], I think the issue with search
is that it relies on generated indexes. If the index does not include the
keyword you're looking for, it won't return anything. For example, in my
docset I've indexed all modules, which is what I'm usually interested in, but
not the entire language specification (although it's in the actual package).

[1] [http://blog.pythonaro.com/2014/06/dash-docset-for-
python-221...](http://blog.pythonaro.com/2014/06/dash-docset-for-
python-221-ie-jython.html)

------
jrajav
I've enjoyed [http://devdocs.io/](http://devdocs.io/) for the same purpose,
though it doesn't have quite the same library.

~~~
jongraehl
devdocs' C++ doesn't have the first thing I tried (list::erase)

~~~
joshvm
It's in there under std::list, but for some reason erase and begin are linked
to externally. All the other member functions seem to be present/offline.

------
benatkin
What happened with this?
[https://twitter.com/wakaba_en/status/322751026211983360](https://twitter.com/wakaba_en/status/322751026211983360)
[https://dribbble.com/shots/1046492-Dash-app-replacement-
icon](https://dribbble.com/shots/1046492-Dash-app-replacement-icon)

~~~
t0asterb0t
It looks like there's a back-and-forth with someone associated with Dash on
the Dribbble here: [https://dribbble.com/shots/1046492-Dash-app-replacement-
icon...](https://dribbble.com/shots/1046492-Dash-app-replacement-
icon#comment-2490121)

The icon has changed since then as well.

~~~
benatkin
That was the second in the comment you replied to. I reread it though and
noticed that it looks like they admitted their mistake:
[https://dribbble.com/shots/1046492-Dash-app-replacement-
icon...](https://dribbble.com/shots/1046492-Dash-app-replacement-
icon#comment-2490121)

I guess I'm OK with the situation now and I shall use Dash without guilt (if
it turns out to be useful, buying the Alfred Powerpack now I think).

~~~
ChikkaChiChi
I can't unsee how bad that black visor looks on the new icon, though.

They should just throw out the baby and the bathwater and start fresh.

------
AlexMuir
I travel a lot. And I'm thinking about buying a houseboat in France. I wish
I'd seen this years ago. Happily purchased.

I can't believe this hasn't come up before - we had a big discussion about
working offline on cruise ships and it wasn't mentioned. [1]

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6697787](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6697787)

~~~
toomuchtodo
I'd be interested in hearing about your plans for a houseboat in France. I
have plans to build a titanium Catamaran for a circumnavigation.

~~~
Scoundreller
You sound like you are living up to your username.

------
sehr
Can't imagine life without this anymore. How it frees up the ~5 tabs of docs I
used to have open in another window is worth it alone

For those of you on OSX, the integration with Alfred[0] is also stellar.

[0] - [http://www.alfredapp.com/](http://www.alfredapp.com/)

------
rgrau
For ppl living in emacs, there's a plugin that use dash docsets but don't
require dash and it's quite integrated with emacs (helm).

They work in linux and windows.

BIAS ALERT: I'm coauthor of the plugin.

[https://github.com/areina/helm-dash](https://github.com/areina/helm-dash)

~~~
craigching
Oh, nice, I'll have to check that out! It's great to see these sorts of posts
on HN, you learn something new every day :)

~~~
rgrau
:)

Indeed, comments in HN aggregate a wiiide range of signal/noise. Great case of
study.

------
izacus
The thing about Dash is that it's just so much faster at displaying
documentation than going to the browser and doing a search query - I use it
even when I'm online with Alfred integration.

Certanly a great investment.

~~~
nilium
Agreed. I started using it back when it was a free beta and bought it once
that was an option (iTunes receipt says that was a few days over two years
ago), and I've probably used it daily since then. The ability to almost
instantly search through tons of different docsets and find what I'm looking
for, narrow them down, create groupings, and so on has made it absurdly useful
to me.

I make a lot of my own docsets as well (i.e., ones for GLFW 3, Gambit Scheme,
JeroMQ, and so on), since kapeli was hesitant in the past to add docsets that
would be only of interest to really narrow groups of people, though it looks
like the user docset thing on GitHub sort of fixes that. Either way, it not
being closed off to outside docsets was nice, since I imagine it would've been
easy to not allow it.

Anyway, glad to see it on HN since I'm a huge fan of Dash after using it for
years. Sort of a shame it's Mac-only, since I keep looking around for ways to
jump to Linux, but it looks like there're some open source alternatives. So,
yeah, Dash was probably the best $30 I spent back in 2012.

------
chm
I bought Dash a year ago. I've barely used it. My brain is wired to search on
the web, not on Dash. The only times I've used it were when I had no internet
connectivity, and it saved me.

Great product, it just doesn't fit into my routine.

~~~
j_s
Many would find the cost justified even by the no-internet-connection saves!

Perhaps the author should integrate web search for the best of both worlds
when available.

~~~
McRask
If I understand what you're suggesting, it does fall back to a web search if
it doesn't find what you're looking for which can be really helpful.

------
selectnull
Dash is great. The only reason I don't use it is that it offers only latest
docset versions; once you update (in-app, great feature) the docsets, there is
no way to access previous versions.

I would pay and use it immediately if I could access all versions (for
example, Django 1.0 thru 1.7 etc)

~~~
kapeli
The latest update of Dash added support for older versions. If any version you
need is missing, let me know and I'll add it ASAP.

~~~
selectnull
Wait, are you talking about 2.1.1? Can you describe how it works or point to
docs or something?

~~~
kapeli
Yes. There are now dropdown buttons next to each docset in Preferences >
Downloads. You can use them to choose which version(s) you want.

~~~
selectnull
Awesome! I bought it. Thank you :)

If it's possible, can you make available all Django versions, from 1.0
onwards? Too much work? Perhaps just 1.x.latest?

~~~
kapeli
I'm not able to find the docs for Django 1.0 and 1.1, but all others should be
doable. Right now I'm focusing on fixing things for OS X 10.10, but I've added
a todo entry for this and as soon as I can I'll add them.

~~~
selectnull
Yep, you're right, django 1.0 and 1.1 are not available anymore according to
[https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/22273](https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/22273)

Take your time with other versions, it's not like it's urgent.

Once again thanks for great work.

------
philo23
Bought this a while back and was very impressed, definitely a worthwhile
purchase if you ever spend some time without much internet access. The
integration with Alfred + the fuzzy searching is just the icing on the cake.

Also as a little side note, I thought the way it handled the UI for tabs was
interesting, though it does leave little room to grab the window and drag when
you've got a few open.

------
baldfat
OS X is surprising to me. This is something that should be cross platform.

~~~
kapeli
I'm Dash's developer. Currently there is Zeal, that has access to all of
Dash's docsets - [http://zealdocs.org](http://zealdocs.org). Native apps for
iOS and Windows are also under development and recently an app for Android has
been released ([http://lovelydocs.io/](http://lovelydocs.io/)). Note: these
apps are made by other developers, I'm just providing the docsets.

~~~
e12e
Zeal looks nice... but am I missing something or are there no urls available
for just the docsets on the dash/zealdocs pages? I get that zealdocs can
download dash docsets -- but quickly skimming the c++ source for editdocsets
didn't reveal any obvious link to a http repo?

------
Ryel
Dash has been one of the most amazing tools to improve my day-to-day workflow.
It's incredible.

I love to travel and specifically I love to travel to places that dont have
wifi. Often times I take fly fishing trips to Montana, or shorter trips to the
Smokey Mountains and during these times I need to be able to work an entire
day without internet and Dash is the only reason I can do this effectively.

Dash + Alfred + Sublime are probably my most used tools in any given day
(aside from Spotify which is rarely ever turned off)

------
patrickg
I really like dash. It's also super easy to provide your own documentation.
I've created a small python script for my software [1].

Here is the dash-feed: dash-
feed://http%3A%2F%2Fspeedata.github.io%2Fpublisher%2Fspeedata_Publisher_(en).xml

[1]
[https://github.com/speedata/publisher/blob/develop/bin/creat...](https://github.com/speedata/publisher/blob/develop/bin/create-
dash-documentsets.py)

------
hopeless
Dash is great and a big shout-out to the developer (@kapeli) who is really
responsive to support requests. I found that the backbone docset was actually
using the Edge version not the latest stable release. He had it fixed in a few
hours.

~~~
csffsc
Agreed; a few weeks ago my license of Dash (purchased via iTunes) somehow went
out of sync. Within 5 minutes of forwarding Kapeli my iTunes receipt of
purchase I was back in business. Fantastic support.

The advantages of searching document's offline really can't be emphasized
enough, 'hotkey - search term - answer', all provided in a floating window
that doesn't interrupt the programmers workspace.

------
purge
This has been the single best investment i've made to my workflow for years.
Really communicative, friendly developer too.

------
TheHippo
For users other platforms there is Zeal which does almost the same (and also
is free): [http://zealdocs.org/](http://zealdocs.org/)

------
zimbatm
Just bought this recently. I feel that I got my money back with all the time
won over Google searches multiple times already. The low latency and absence
of unrelated results helps me stay in the flow. For me the trick was to assign
a global shortcut to invoke the tool.

------
Cthulhu_
I like the idea, I bought it and have it open all the time, however I don't
find myself using it that often. That's probably because I know most of the
tools I work with out of memory (angularJS), and the documentation I do have
to look up sometimes (UnderscoreJS) I actually prefer to see in the browser;
the navigation on the browser version has a better subdivision in Underscore
modules (functions, arrays, objects etc) which Dash's index is missing.

(subtle feature request: subcategories for the underscore docset, or
headers/sections in the method listing)

~~~
kapeli
The method listing does show headers/sections for Underscore. See
[http://i.imgur.com/agqawiL.png](http://i.imgur.com/agqawiL.png). As far as I
can tell, this is the same as the side menu at
[http://underscorejs.org/](http://underscorejs.org/). If anything is missing,
let me know!

------
dorian-graph
Great developer too. I've put in docs request (for ColdFusion) and he
constantly sought feedback from me to ensure it was presented in the best way
possible and if he was unsure about something himself.

------
rafadc
I was very happy to see this in HN. This is one of my favourite everyday job
tools in my Mac. It's also easy to integrate with vim, emacs or sublime to
show the docs for the selected keyword.

For a clojure programmer having clojuredocs docset is also a must
([https://github.com/dlokesh/clojuredocs-
docset](https://github.com/dlokesh/clojuredocs-docset)) although I think this
is unofficial.

~~~
craigching
Yes, I originally bought Dash for iOS development and was pleasantly surprised
to see ClojureDocs appear one day. Really freaked me out ... in a good way!

------
julenx
Bought the license few weeks ago and loving it.

Would be willing to pay even more if it integrated well with ReadTheDocs —
there are tons of (not only) Python docs living there which I need regularly.

And yes, I know #662 exists [1] on the RTD side and the future is not so
clear.

[1]
[https://github.com/rtfd/readthedocs.org/issues/662](https://github.com/rtfd/readthedocs.org/issues/662)

~~~
guac
If the project is using sphinx (most python projects) you can use
[https://github.com/hynek/doc2dash](https://github.com/hynek/doc2dash) to make
the docset yourself.

------
jwr
I've been using Dash for more than a year now. I love it. It is great for
quickly looking up things, and best of all it works for multiple languages. I
regularly write code in Clojure, Perl, Java and C, I also use Redis and
PostgreSQL, and Dash helps with all of that.

My only wish is that someday I could get Intel's x86 manuals and ARM Cortex M0
and M4 instruction set documentation in Dash.

~~~
ansimionescu
My experience is at the opposite end of the spectrum. I installed it roughly
one year ago, played with it and admired its functionality, then never used it
since. It might be just that I'm way too connected to my Chrome tabs.

~~~
rev087
You just need to get used to incorporating Dash into your workflow. If it
helps convincing you, Dash also has tabs and uses the same shortcuts as
Chrome.

------
shoki
I love dash; I've been using it for years.

A small wishlist:

\- ClojureDocs: [http://clojuredocs.org/](http://clojuredocs.org/)

\- Hoogle integration:
[http://www.haskell.org/hoogle/](http://www.haskell.org/hoogle/)

\- BroPages: [http://bropages.org/](http://bropages.org/)

------
jason_slack
I love Dash.

My one request. I wish that I could take my own HTML docs (WiiU Dev stuff, as
example) and my own PDF's and get them into DASH for searching.

I have a fair amount of documentation in HTML that I would love to have all in
one place along with the Docsets I use daily.

~~~
Tyr42
There is a way to make your own.
[http://kapeli.com/docsets](http://kapeli.com/docsets)

It's got examples for

1\. AppleDoc (Objective-C Source Files)

2\. Python, Sphinx or PyDoctor-Generated Documentation

3\. Javadoc-Generated Documentation

4\. RDoc or Yard-Generated Documentation

5\. Scaladoc-Generated Documentation

6\. Doxygen (Source Files: C, C++, C#, PHP, Objective-C, Java, Python)

7\. Any HTML Documentation

~~~
jason_slack
Thank you!

------
j_s
Definitely a requirement on the next non-Internet-accessible development
opportunity!

I would like to see a utility that would collect (readability-ified) urls and
package them nicely for Dash/Zeal. This would make it easy to build an ultra-
custom collection of useful info - a searchable offline bookmarking tool. Best
of all would be something that knew how to periodically refresh this archive.

Also, these tools should include a timeline tracking what was useful so that
as I return to projects/problems I can scroll back and pick up where I left
off.

------
estebanrules
Dash really is an indispensable developer's tool for OS X, but it took me a
bit to integrate it into my work flow. Now I use it all the time, it's great.

------
brianzelip
This is pretty sweet. How do the docsets get prepped for download? The author
scrapes the html doc pages at the tool's site? But for example in the case of
Node.js, the menu nav on the left side of the official docs [0] aren't found
in Dash's docset.

[0][http://nodejs.org/api/documentation.html](http://nodejs.org/api/documentation.html)

------
tolmasky
When the option to buy on the website or on the App Store is presented like
this, which do the authors usually prefer?

~~~
j_s
If you are comfortable managing your own problems, giving the author Apple's
30% cut is probably appreciated. However, the app store handles long-term
hassles like re-installation, etc. A support incident is probably more
expensive time-wise than the $6.

~~~
avoid3d
Consider however that if we all bought off the app store, then while apple may
take 30% of our payments, the author may benefit far more from the increased
exposure due to the inherent popularity contest that is the app store.

------
robertcarter
Is there a way to tab into the content for a query (right side column) instead
of having to mouseover and scroll? Also it would be nice to be able to search
the content area as well so I can more effectively jump to the material I
think I need.

------
QuadDamaged
Dash is beautiful because it doesn't get in your way. Very flexible, and even
the most convoluted features are quite simple to configure.

My only wish is that it would let me use a 'night mode' so I can use white
text on dark background at night.

------
markthethomas
I've really found this app incredibly helpful; I use a really wide variety of
libraries and APIs and not having to go to each site has saved me tons of
time. Maybe it's not for everyone, but I've loved it. Worth trying out.

------
trevorhartman
Dash has become a part of my standard workflow in the last few months. It's
great and it's always getting better. @kapeli responds quickly to
feedback/questions on Twitter. I use it with Alfred and the vim plugin.

------
winter_blue
Wow, this is probably the most incredibly useful app for the Mac I've come
across in a long time! The UI is seamless and well-made. I'm gonna love using
this. :-)

Kudos HN, for bringing this app into the limelight!

------
colinramsay
Looks good, particularly alfred and sublime integration. It doesn't download
any docsets for me on the OSX10.10 preview but I'll try it again when Yosemite
is a bit more prepared for the real world!

Good stuff!

~~~
kapeli
There are quite a few issues in Yosemite, especially with Apple's new docsets.
An update should be available soon.

------
Honzo
Dash is great combined with Alfred. I changed the keyword to a period (.) with
no space so lookups look like ".extend" and bam I get the results for extend
from four docsets.

~~~
jzupnick
Great tip! Doing this.

------
Hansi
This looks great, assuming it's very useful when you want to do concentrated
coding with internet off to avoid distractions. I'm sold, buying this when I
get out of work.

------
davidbrent
This is awesome. Although an excellent resource, there are many times I get
very distracted using Google to get this kind of information. This could help
me stay on task.

------
sdegutis
When Dash first came out, I liked it a lot, and found it better than Google
for finding what I needed in almost any language I used.

But for some reason that even I don't really know, I stopped using it. I just
checked the App Store on this computer, and it says Install, not Buy, which
means I already paid for it long ago, and could have been using it this whole
time. If only the developers could figure out why I stopped, they could
probably make a lot more money.

That said, I do still see an App Store notification pop up every once in a
while saying Dash needs to be updated, and it is pretty annoying how often
that happens compared to any other app.

------
d1ffuz0r
For python you can try a docsets collection of the most popular packages:
[http://python-dashapp.tk/](http://python-dashapp.tk/)

------
jamesu
A great example of a purpose-built app which does one thing really well (i.e.
searching docs from a single location). Easily beats having to google for
docs.

------
crag
I LOVE the integration: Alfred, PHPStorm, and Sublime. Brilliant. And frankly,
I can't believe you have docs for things like Yii.

Easily worth the 19.99 price. Thanks.

~~~
crag
OMG is has tabs! Ok, now I REALLY love this app.

------
geoffroy
Love Dash !! Esp. since you can also add Rubygems doc

------
mhenr18
I love Dash, have recommended it to everyone at uni. Using a machine where
Alt+Space doesn't throw up documentation feels really weird.

------
jzupnick
Dash ramped up my programming game like nothing else. Pair it with the Dash
Alfred workflow and you'll be flying. Highly recommended.

------
visarga
@kapeli : I am trying to buy Dash, but when I click the green "Purchase Dash"
button, nothing happens. Is it normal?

------
john2x
Dash is the only app that's making me think twice about buying a Linux machine
when my current laptop retires.

~~~
shock
I'll prolly have the Linux version out by then ;)

~~~
john2x
Cool! Are you working with Kapeli on the Linux version? Is there a site I can
keep track of progress? I'd love to check it out once it's available.

~~~
shock
I haven't set up a site yet for posting about progress but that's because I've
been busy, not for lack of interest in doing so. There's a list of people
interested in the Linux version and I will email the list once I set up the
site. If you want to add yourself to the list you can do so at [http://dash-
port.launchrock.com/](http://dash-port.launchrock.com/) .

~~~
john2x
The pink, it burns! Signed up :)

------
localhost
If this were integrated with an offline cache of StackOverflow questions that
would be fantastically awesome.

~~~
localhost
And ... I see that this feature is already in the product. You've now got my
$20.

~~~
colomon
Out of curiosity, how large is the Stack Overflow docset?

~~~
discohead
The SO docsets are specific to a tag. Some of theme are gigantic. Therefore
you have the option of downloading them in their entirety for offline use (I
think the iOS one was 300-400MB's) or you can download just the index (which
was like 20MB) which allows for fast search results but needs a connection to
retrieve the full content.

------
hackerboos
I used Dash for a couple of months but found myself Googling when Dash
returned no results.

Dash needs better fuzzy searching.

------
listic
Is there an easy way to (try to) run Mac apps on Linux, like Wine project
+PlayOnLinux for Windows?

~~~
peterkelly
Seriously, if you want to do this just get a mac. I made the switch several
years ago after being a loyal Linux user for a long time, after I realised how
much easier it made life.

I know they're expensive (though a low-end macbook air is pretty reasonably
priced) but I've found it well worth the money given it's what I spend almost
every waking hour in front of.

And with decent enough hardware Linux runs very nicely under a virtual machine
when you need it.

~~~
listic
Get a Mac to do what? Run this one application? Sorry, that looks too
excessive for me.

Following this logic, should I have bought a latest Windows PC to run the
program or two I run under Wine?

Why would I want to do everything inside of a Linux virtual machine, as
opposed to natively?

~~~
peterkelly
> Get a Mac to do what? Run this one application?

If it's only for one app, no.

I just personally find the mac platform in general to offer a better user
experience, esp. with regards to not having to waste hours getting stuff to
work.

This is just my personal experience; if Linux works for you then great.

~~~
listic
I deeply respect Apple for its attention to user experience and design, but I
don't agree with all of it's choices they make for me. I wish there were many
different Apples, then I could choose the one I like, but unfortunately we
have only one.

In my very limited encounters with OS X's desktop environment, I didn't find
it practical, and the proposition is: take it or leave it, right? Changes to
the default desktop environment are as outlawed as they are in Windows, or
aren't they?

~~~
stonith
I maintained an xmonad environment for a couple of years on various versions
of ubuntu and switched to osx last year. I share your view that Apple
frequently makes choices that don't map to my expectations of an OS.

I use slate + pckeyboardhack + keyremap4mac to control my windows via
keyboard. Instead of using multiple monitors I switched to a single larger one
which is easier to control.

I guess my point is that you can kind of change things, but you might need to
compromise in some areas. I don't know of a way to get multiple desktops, for
example, but I can switch between apps by binding keys to names of them and
get around that way.

It's also going to be hard to try these sorts of things out in the store, and
given how expensive the devices are it's difficult to justify given you may
end up with an expensive tool you don't want to use.

YMMV, of course.

------
cobalt
It looks nice, I wish it were on windows as well (and linux while you're at
it)

------
brockers
It is really annoying when these HN links are to Mac only applications.

------
emilyst
I wonder how out of the question Spotlight integration would be.

------
encoderer
This integrated with Alfred is a must-have dev tool IMO.

------
shunya
I have been using it for 6 months, love it.

------
daleharvey
Glad to see people providing offline documentation (and worrying about offline
in general)

I am wondering why you went with a native app as opposed to something webbased
though?

~~~
soa_barym
How can you provide offline anything with a web-based app?

~~~
daviddoran
Lots of ways actually: it could be hosted on the web but use HTML5 offline
storage and caching; it could use something like node-webkit or atom-shell; it
could be a Chrome extension.

------
electic
I like DevDocs better. I kind of find it shady that Dash is free and then
suddenly, poof, you have to pay.

~~~
ben336
Are you saying that its shady that it has a free trial period (with nags) or
that it used to be free and then became a product that the developer charged
for? And how are either of these things shady?

------
gesman
C#?

------
pastaking
I love this! Thank you!

------
jablan
Call me stupid, but I can't get simple question answered by reading the page:
What is Dash? A website? Locally run server listening at 8080? Desktop
application? From the screenshots I guess it is probably OSX app, but is it so
hard to put it clearly somewhere in the top?

~~~
poolpool
One of the first things you see is a link to download on the App Store...

~~~
jablan
Frankly, I don't know whether AppStore offers only OSX apps (or you can also
buy iOS apps, or certain website access). It also doesn't mean that it's not
some kind of portable application (working also on OSX). That's also suggested
by the "Download" link below AppStore link, which may mean that there is also
other forms of whatever Dash is, apart from the form which is available
through AppStore.

Ok, I guess the target audience would in 99% _guess_ what Dash is, but that
still doesn't mean that it shouldn't be written somewhere clearly.

------
chrisgd
I have no idea what this is as I am not a programmer, but the website looks
really good

------
kovrik
Didn't like it. Why use Dash if you have Google? But maybe I'm missing
something. I'll try new version.

~~~
girvo
My use-case is the three hours a day I'm on the train without stable internet
:)

~~~
jakio
Hell, even with an internet connection it's faster than Google .

------
suckprogrammer
Nice advertising. It's a decent app that will hold you hostage for data unless
you feed it 20 bucks. If they get a better(cheaper) financial model I could
see myself doing it.

~~~
shock
I don't understand what do you mean that it will hold you hostage for data
unless you feed it 20 bucks. All the data Dash displays is available publicly
on the internet, no?

