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Maybe I'm blind - but i can't seem to figure out a) what you get when you pay for Dash on Mac vs download? Or b) why i can't use zeal on Mac?

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Dash is a commercial software on macOS. The author created the whole docset parsing/plugin stuff and markets the tool. I use it for years and upgraded multiple times since it’s a timesaver.

There has been controversy in the past about the tool since it is a glorified man page reader. The author even shared at one point his earnings and what he is doing with it.

And no there is no zeal for macOS. I don’t know the details behind that deal. I can only say that zeal is not as good as dash. The integration into macOS is way smoother than what one gets on windows and Linux. I tried all versions.

IIRC, Zeal and Dash have a deal with eachother - since Dash has no plans for non-mac devices, Dash told zeal the docsets can be used free of charge as long as zeal does not provide release builds on Mac. I believe you can build zeal on mac on your own.

Here is the github discussion created by dash author explaining the deal https://github.com/zealdocs/zeal/issues/24#issue-17915169

It’s not widely advertised (probably this is the deal) but Zeal works fine on macOS, see this: https://github.com/zealdocs/zeal/wiki/Build-Instructions-for...

You don’t need to build it yourself, there is a brew formula.

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