Reading Racket Documentation on Android, No Internet Needed

I've got emacs and racket running nicely on my Android phone (thanks to the awesome Gnuroot). But that left me with a new wrinkle: what's the best way to access Racket Documentation while programming on my phone? Obviously, I can open up a browser to doc.racket-lang.org but what if I'm a context where I don't have access to the Net?

By default, apt-get appears to install racket documentation in /usr/share/doc/racket, which means that my phone had the documentation, I just needed a way of viewing it.

Method 1: w3m. A quick and easy way to view the documentation is to run apt-get install w3m, and install w3m. w3m is an extremely handy tool as it lets you view html files from the command line. For example:

Method 2: launch a local web server. While w3m is a fast and functional solution, I wanted to be able to view the documentation in a standard browser, too. I figured I could accomplish this if I kicked off a local webserver. I could then point my regular Android browser to this server and I'd be all set. While I'm sure I could have installed apache or another full featured server, I found an easier and lighter weight solution: wbox. wbox is a testing tool that happens to offer the capability of being a stand alone, zero configuration, web server. Installing wbox is as easy as running apt-get install wbox. And here it is in action:

(Note the URL is: http://localhost:8081)

wbox worked perfectly, and I should be able to leverage this same approach to hosting any local documentation.

Combine this local web browser approach with Android Multi Window, and you've got a remarkably functional environment.

I'm one step closer to a full self contained, no-Internet-needed, development environment.