reading chm files on linux
“there are two doors. the door to your right leads to the source and the salvation of zion. the door to your left leads back to the matrix, to her and the end of your species.”
- the architect, matrix reloaded
ebook lovers know that the ebook format trend is leaning towards chm, i.e. compiled html. though not as universal as pdf, chm isn’t gaining popularity for no reason. it’s nicer to read, has a very helpful index on the left panel, pretty good image support etc.
if you’re using windows, then you won’t have any trouble with viewing chm files, as it is natively supported. the opposite is true if you’re using other platform, such as gnu/linux. fortunately there are, at least, two solutions.
first, you can convert the chm files into a more popular format, such as pdf. if you’re taking this path, there are many tools that you can use as a means to justify your end. one of them is chm to pdf converter. as i almost always shun converting file format for various reasons, this is not my prefered solution.
otherwise, you can install chm viewer on your gnu/linux. one program that is pretty popular is xchm. if you take this road less taken, you will need two other files or dependencies, i.e. chmlib and wxgtk.
as you might have known, compiling source file in gnu/linux usually include the following commands:
- $ ./configure
- $ make
- # make install
eventhough you’re familiar with the process, it’s always a good idea to read the install file.
after installing the program, you can invoke it to run in the background by typing xchm & on your terminal. happy reading!
da juice:
-
chm to pdf converter pro can be downloaded here. last known good patch was released by team digerati. happy hunting!
- download page for xchm is here. select a mirror closest to you for download.
- chmlib in tgz can be downloaded here. other compression format can be selected from the download page, here.
- wxgtk in tgz can be downloaded from sourceforge’s mirror site, here. other compression format and its documentation can be selected from here.
