As a programmer, one of the most common actions of the day is to look at various API documents, and you’ve probably had multiple Windows open at once (HTML, PDF, CHM), constantly switching between editors and documents. Not only is it time-consuming, but it’s also inefficient. Find documentation everywhere, check out the use of a function command, and various Googles. Here’s a tool to take the hassle out of searching. Dash is an API Documentation Browser and Code Snippet Manager

Function is introduced

The official summary of its purpose is in one sentence: Dash is an API document browser and snippet manager. Dash stores code snippets and instantly searches more than 200 apis, more than 100 cheat sheets, and more offline document sets. You can even generate your own set of documents or request to include them. Simple, but powerful, with all the documentation you need.

Set of supported documents

Dash comes with more than 200 offline document sets. You can choose the set of documents to download, and Dash will take care of the other documents to make sure they stay up to date. You can also generate your own set of documents, request docsets, or download docsets from third-party sources.

The various sets of documents that come with Dash are listed below. Highlight the most popular ones. All document sets have been generated and are kept up to date.

Third Party Document Sources

Amazing integration plug-ins

Extend the functionality

Powerful API document browsing, search function

This function is most commonly used by all of us. We have to repeatedly check and search so many API details every day. Without a good tool, how can we cope with it alone? The window keeps cutting to cut, very annoying ah! Dash solves this problem by integrating a single window. Take a look at the screenshot below:

This is the Dash API browser’s main interface: the left sidebar is a navigation outline for the various programming languages and frameworks (depending on how many collections of documents you have downloaded and installed), and click on a node and the content area on the right gives you the documentation details, which is very intuitive. You can also find relevant API documents by entering keywords in the search box at the top left, much like full-text search. Dash is very responsive! The key is that you can query content in different languages and frameworks at the same time, which is very convenient. This is different from switching to a specific document window (such as a PDF or CHM file) and CTRL + F. Dash can use shortcuts to show and hide document Windows, and it provides a configuration interface for users to set up their own. (I prefer Alt + Space, because other apps rarely use this key combination.)

Dash comes with a rich API documentation for all the major programming languages and frameworks, and the list is daunting: ActionScript, Android, C++, Cappuccino, Cocos2D, Cocos3D, Corona, CSS, Django, Groovy, HTML, Java, JavaFX, JavaScript, jQuery, Kobold2D, Lua, MySQL, Node.js, Man Pages, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Scala, Sparrow, SQLite, Unity 3D, WordPress, XSLT, XUL

The Dash library is in docset format, and advanced users can easily add additional extensions based on the tutorials provided by the website. In fact, when Dash was first released, it supported only a handful of documents, such as Java, HTML, and CSS. And timely feedback from the author (I contacted the author via Email and asked for the Rails API to be added, and the author was very nice), which gradually grew to include such a wide range of language and framework support. To add API documents, open the software configuration screen and switch to the Docset TAB to see a list of all the built-in documents. Download as needed (if you made your own Docset, double click to import Dash) :

Windows & Linux don’t cry

My company computer is Linux, I have found an alternative, as Windows can also use, but I do not have the experience to use. Zeal is the same software as Dash.

The software is similar to the Dash

Supporting documentation is also extensive

Installation method

window

Download:  https://dl.bintray.com/zealdocs/windows/zeal-0.5.0-windows-x64.msi https://dl.bintray.com/zealdocs/windows/zeal-0.5.0-windows-x86.msi, and then, the next step, the next step, to confirmCopy the code

Linux:

# arch linux
sudo pacman -Syu zeal
# debian
sudo apt-get install zeal
# Fedora
sudo dnf install zeal
# Gentoo
emerge app-doc/zeal
# ubuntu
sudo apt-get install zeal

# openBSD
pkg_add zeal
Copy the code

Each tool carries with it the spirit used to create it.