So in the process of setting up a new PocketPC I realized that I could not find my install or registration information for old CHM Reader 2.0. CHM files are compiled HTML help files used by various Windows apps etc. Many of Microsofts technical books used to come with the entire book on CD in this format. I have used this program off and on to read CHM files on my PocketPcs in the past. The program was slow and wouldn't handle large CHM files but was the only real solution at the time...
Instead of going to PocketGear and paying another 10.00 to replace this 'lost' app I decided to do a little digging first. What I found is that there are several soutions to this problem now. Most attempt to address the large file issue by only loading the pages/sections requested into memory rather than the whole book (a problem with my old reader). I found two new commercial programs and one for free. All of these claim to work with PPC 2003SE and even support VGA and screen rotation. I decided to give the free app a try, what did I have to lose?
The App is called CHMReader.Net and is written by Peter Tewkesbury. As you can tell by the title it was written in .Net. He wrote an earlier version in MFC that was also free, but that has been abandoned.
So how does it work? I installed it to the internal Ipaq filestore to save space and it seems to work just fine from there. Opening large files takes a bit of time to build the index files etc., but this process is faster than my old reader. Once the file is opened you can browse the contents and jumpt to any section or do a search. The program supports wrapping the content to the screen or letting it flow as orignally layed out. That latter is useful for viewing images in the doc as it prevents them from being resized to the screen. The program runs fine on a VGA Windows Mobile 2003SE device, even in landscape mode. The best news is that it handles large CHM files without a hitch. It opened my largest file, 18Mb with no problems, something my old reader would never do. Now I can take a pile of technical books with me where ever I go.
Now, only if Microsoft hadn't stopped including .CHM files with their very expensive books!
I could never get any CHM reader working on my iPaq. Even when the book was small (~1 MB), the limited memory on the device seemed to get filled up and I'd have to do a hard reset.
I was going to do my own version of a CHM reader, where it would sync smaller portions of the book and stuff, but then MS stopped shipping the CHM versions of it's books. That was a huge step backwards. Now, the CHM books that I do have are essentially going to be out of date in a year or so, so I guess there's no point in bothering with it anymore.