Page 1 of 2

Difference analysis

Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2005 5:19 pm
by dherric
PLEASE consider upgrading this function. It is the only feature my programmers do not like.

Functionality like Winedit or Ed for windows would be great in this area.


Tx

David

Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2005 8:38 am
by dixonc
Have you tried CSDiff - it's free and works great. Only problem is it has to be run outside Textpad but if that's not a problem have a look:

http://www.componentsoftware.com/produc ... f/news.htm

Posting this message I noticed that there's been a couple of upgrades to the software since I last looked. I'm off to get V5 :D

Posted: Thu Apr 28, 2005 3:15 pm
by dherric
I have not tried it will check it out - tx

Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 7:27 pm
by jmooney
Check out ExamDiff (free version). It's a nice sidebyside diff tool and can be hooked under the tools menu in Textpad, though I've not figured out how to load the opened files list in Textpad or how to insert file1/file2.

Posted: Thu May 05, 2005 1:27 pm
by dherric
Thanks I will check that one out as well

Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 2:57 pm
by Rodrigo
My company bought Araxis Merge to do that task.
It's quite good actually and i use it sometimes, but Textpad is still way faster & better :)

Suggest try Tadzios file compare (TFC)

Posted: Mon May 23, 2005 6:01 pm
by David Haslam
The site's in German, but the TFC compare program is terrific.

http://www.tadzio.com/tfc/index.html

TFC used to be packed with ZTree in days long gone by.

If your German isn't up to scratch, you can get Google to translate the page to English for you.

Should be a simple task to get TextPad to launch TFC using one of the Tools.

Though the screenshots don't show it, you can configure TFC to just highlight character differences in red rather than whole lines that are different.

Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 2:21 pm
by dixonc
It looks like there is wide variety of third party comparison tools that people use. Can I ask for the next release we have a $File1 $File2 option so these can be called from within TextPad please and the files passed as parameters?

"Compare Files" should allow user to control conte

Posted: Thu May 26, 2005 12:07 am
by mnoss
Currently TextPad gives the user no control over whether the diff output contains context or not. Release Notes for 4.7.0 state "Compare files now only lists different lines, rather than at least 3 lines of context". Later on, Helios reversed itself. Release Notes for 4.7.2 state "The minimum number of consecutive matches when comparing files has been set back to 3, to prevent problems with certain degenerate cases."

In our database-oriented environment, we want the 4.7.0 behaviour. This is important enough to us that we're inhibited from upgrading to 4.7.3. Other folks may legitimately want the 4.7.2 behaviour.

TextPad should allow users to select which behaviour they get.

Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 3:23 pm
by bgclarke
I usually end up having to use CSDiff, the Diff tool from the Gel Java IDE, or the diff tool from ConText to do my comparisons as I find the diff tool in Textpad is just not sufficient for our needs.

The diff tools in Gel and ConText give you color-coded, side-by-side views of the differences, with the common code properly aligned so you can really see what has changed.

The ability to pass multiple filename parameters to the configured external diff tools would also be nice to have.

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 11:59 am
by ninjalabs
Get tortoiseSVN and use TortoiseMerge that comes with it.

Oh and learn about TortoiseSVN - it will make your lives so much easier (and safer) :)

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 4:03 pm
by bgclarke
ninjalabs wrote:Get tortoiseSVN and use TortoiseMerge that comes with it.

Oh and learn about TortoiseSVN - it will make your lives so much easier (and safer) :)
TortoiseSVN is not a solution my employer would go for.

We currently use SCCS, PVCS, RMS, and are migrating to Borland StarTeam.

Since TortoiseSVN is an open source product they wouldn't go for it; there isn't anyone they could pull the trigger on if something goes awry :wink:

Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2005 4:16 pm
by Blah
If it is of any interest I use "Compare & Merge", which I've registered, and "Compare It!" which I may register if it continually seems to outdo the other. Probably worth a try ?

Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2005 12:48 pm
by ninjalabs
bgclarke wrote: Since TortoiseSVN is an open source product they wouldn't go for it; there isn't anyone they could pull the trigger on if something goes awry :wink:
Have you ever tried pulling the trigger on Microsoft when sourcesafe goes "to the looney bin"? (I have!) Your EULA has prevented them from taking any responsibility. They take your per-incident 185 UKP and tell you they'll fix it some time in the future. Same goes for all commercial software.

I love companies that use that old one...

Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2005 3:00 pm
by tacke
Hi,
You can also consider WinMerge, which is free, fast and active project.
I'm using'it from more then 2 years.