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First, with the "...I think that's a dealbreaker, ladies..." Just
for clarification, are you trying to be deliberately insulting?
As for whether *you* "consider it a dealbreaker"--unlike you, Linux
users at least aren't phased by installing a file viewer. It is free
and takes a few moments only. I presume, too, that Mac users aren't
quite so clueless either.
I read many ebooks, and a surprising number are published in .chm
format. Thus, I installed a viewer some time ago and from that point
it is automatic...simply click on the file and it opens normally.
What is the "dealbreaker" about that?
Now, in an environment where people are prohibited from installing any
software of any kind, perhaps you might be so limited. But to insist
that this is tantamount to "not working on other platforms" seems both
illogical and silly.
For example, Flash video support isn't "baked in" to Windows. Would
you say that Flash does not support Windows? After all, it is a viewer
that must be installed.
Or how about listening to various audio codecs not already included in
Windows? Are these "not supported on the platform" because you must
download a codec?
Or what about Word files...again, not baked into Windows itself, so
systems without word must load some kind of viewer application...or is
that, too, "not supported on the platform?"
Sorry, but I fail to grasp your point about what is "supported on a
platform" if that particular thing is not shipped with the operating
system. It seems rather arbitrary on your part.
Why not simply admit you were misinformed? Pointing out, perhaps, that
a viewer application must be loaded on Macs or on Linux or UNIX
systems--even though the viewers are free--is a valid observation. To
claim flatly that the format is "not supported" seems a stretch.
David
> From: Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:26:44 -0800
> Subject: Re: CHM on other platforms; was: re: RoboHelp: Ready to Publish...how do I do that?
> Yeah, sure, strictly speaking CHM can be made to work on MacOS or
> Linux if you install a a converter or viewer.
>
> With the exception of PDF, I think that's a dealbreaker, ladies, so
> I'll continue to round that off as "won't work."
>
> On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 10:34 PM, David Neeley <dbneeley -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
>> Robert,
>>
>> With respect, your information is either simply misinformed or
>> seriously out of date.
>>
>> I just looked at the Ubuntu package manager, and counted at least five
>> different tools for viewing CHM files in Linux--and one that converts
>> .chm to .pdf, by the way (apparetly a Python script that might also
>> work in Windows if the appropriate libraries are present).\
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