Dash is an API Documentation Browser and Code Snippet Manager. It stores snippets of code and instantly searches offline documentation sets for 200+ APIs, 100+ cheat sheets and more. It helps you keep all the APIs, from the different languages you are using, in a central location.
The only problem is that it only runs on Mac OS. However, there is a solution to that, or even better, two. Velocity and Zeal which both are using the same docsets provided by Dash.
Velocity (Windows, Paid)
The first one is Velocity, which provides offline access to over 150 API documentation sets (powered by Dash for Mac OS).
A very nice feature of Velocity is that there are plug-ins for the most popular IDEs and editors. Click on the link below to get the one for the development environment you are using.
Zeal (Windows, Linux, Free)
The second one is Zeal, which is also an offline documentation browser for software developers, available on Windows and Linux.
While Dash gives access to docsets contributed by users, Zeal does not currently support searching in user contributed docsets. However, you may find handy the following app Zeal User Contributions Repository, as it gives you an easy way to install those missing API docsets.
To install a docset in Zeal:
- search for the docset you are looking for,
- copy the .xml URL, open Zeal, click on Tools -> Docsets… -> Installed -> Add feed,
- paste the URL and click OK
To add the corresponding icons, download both icons (icon.png and icon@2x.png) inside the docset folder next to the Contents folder and the meta.json file.
- In Windows by default C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Zeal\Zeal\docsets\<DocsetName>.docset
- In Linux by default ~/local/share/zeal/docsets