Wikipedia offline on a mac?
May 29, 2008 6:45 PM
How can I read Wikipedia offline on my mac (bonus points for portable and cross-platform)?
I am going on a long trip (3 months) on which I will not have internet. I want to be able to have wikipedia with me when I go. I am aware of the many options for Windows (WikiTaxi seems to be the best) but I know no good up-to-date ones for Mac. I have no real coding ability (a smidge of processing...) and want something moderately easy to use.
I have tried (and failed at using) ksana4wiki.
I am going on a long trip (3 months) on which I will not have internet. I want to be able to have wikipedia with me when I go. I am aware of the many options for Windows (WikiTaxi seems to be the best) but I know no good up-to-date ones for Mac. I have no real coding ability (a smidge of processing...) and want something moderately easy to use.
I have tried (and failed at using) ksana4wiki.
Also, I want a non-html version (unless there is a really recent version of the html that I can use).
posted by ooklala at 7:03 PM on May 29, 2008
posted by ooklala at 7:03 PM on May 29, 2008
Piggybacking, I'm really curious how to do this under *nix
posted by phrontist at 7:49 PM on May 29, 2008
posted by phrontist at 7:49 PM on May 29, 2008
@hal_c_on
That is the unparsed XML. I need a way to view that in an easy to use, searchable environment.
posted by ooklala at 8:27 PM on May 29, 2008
That is the unparsed XML. I need a way to view that in an easy to use, searchable environment.
posted by ooklala at 8:27 PM on May 29, 2008
how "recent" are you after? static.wikipedia.org currently has HTML of 2008-02...
posted by russm at 8:47 PM on May 29, 2008
posted by russm at 8:47 PM on May 29, 2008
(and in theory at least, "searchable" comes for free with Spotlight on your mac...)
posted by russm at 8:49 PM on May 29, 2008
posted by russm at 8:49 PM on May 29, 2008
gah! looks like static.wikipedia.org is b0rked in some way or other, and is missing dumps for languages en and upwards... never mind me...
posted by russm at 8:52 PM on May 29, 2008
posted by russm at 8:52 PM on May 29, 2008
This is a long shot, but there's a new version of the Wikipedia Encyclopaedia in TomeRaider format, if you don't mind spending $36 and using Windows.
posted by lukemeister at 9:11 PM on May 29, 2008
posted by lukemeister at 9:11 PM on May 29, 2008
With a little bit of tweaking, you could create your own (html) mirror. From this page I found an example command line:
Caveats:
Make sure to do the "-w 10" part, without it your computer would give their servers a pounding. Some people might still claim that this is an unacceptable burden on their servers. I don't know, and I've never been any sort of server admin. I'm prepared for people to say that this is a terrible idea, and be right. Listen to them.
This will take a long time.
I haven't tested this, you'll have to supply the details. Here's a man page.
I'm pretty sure Macs don't ship with wget installed, you'll have to install it somehow.
posted by philomathoholic at 1:12 AM on May 30, 2008
wget --mirror –w 10 –p --HTML-extension –-convert-links http://www.wikipedia.comCaveats:
posted by philomathoholic at 1:12 AM on May 30, 2008
I've been wanting to do this for Wookieepedia.com (a Star Wars Wiki) FOREVER. Will WGet also snag images?
how about flash files?
posted by arniec at 7:19 AM on May 30, 2008
how about flash files?
posted by arniec at 7:19 AM on May 30, 2008
The wikipedia offline dump page says that they prohibit the use of downloaders like wget.
posted by ooklala at 8:59 AM on May 30, 2008
posted by ooklala at 8:59 AM on May 30, 2008
Ah, I was going to post a follow-up with a few more caveats and tips, but I guess I don't need to now. Sorry about that.
posted by philomathoholic at 11:28 AM on May 30, 2008
posted by philomathoholic at 11:28 AM on May 30, 2008
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posted by majick at 6:51 PM on May 29, 2008