Wish: compare by content results export

[interDist]

Hi,

I' ve tried several text comparison utilites but came to the conclusion that the one TC has is the most sophisticated (as long as diff is unavailable under Windows...). It has some problems when there are blank lines appering in one file and absent in the other, but one can live with that to some degree.

However, recently I ran into a situation when I needed to write down the difference between several files, and I could not find a way to do so in TC. (simply to export what has changed, much like Line N: added/removed/altered xyz ).

Is something like that going to make its way into 6.0 ?

[jdmarch]

> text comparison utilites
> the one TC has is the most sophisticated

TC is a superb and indispensable program, but on this detail I disagree. Have you looked at Beyond Compare? One month trial available at:
http://www.scootersoftware.com

It can export file differences, and much much more.

(BTW, Beyond Compare v 2.0 is on their website; 2.1 public beta will be out next week, and adds many more features, as I've seen while testing it.)

[j.x]

2interDist If you want a text comparision result exported to another text file, then maybe the standard console program FC.EXE is good enough? - But I agree with you, jdmarch, BC is superb!

[jb]

A similar subject was already discussed in "[Feature Request] Compare by Content - Edit feature".

Here I just would like to remind that Araxis Merge is also a very good compare and merge program, but unfortunately quite expensive. There is a fully functional trial version.

[Horst.Epp]

Try CSDIff, its free and has a lot of useful features.
http://www.componentsoftware.com/products/csdiff/index.htm

[oblomov]

All these external programs are fine, but they all have the same problem: TC 5.5 doesn't support them, there is no support for external file comparers! Will TC 6 change this?

[SanskritFritz]

All these external programs are fine, but they all have the same problem: TC 5.5 doesn't support them, there is no support for external file comparers! Will TC 6 change this?

Beyond Compare has a very good shell extension through the popup menu. All others can be reached easily through the Send To menu. Put a shortcut of the program into the "SendTo" directory (ex. c:\Documents and Settings\<user>\SendTo\). TC's Start menu is an alternative also.
BTW, another good one is ExamDiff, mentioned also on TC addin page, it is IMO better than Beyond Compare (german thread: http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=1762&highlight=examdiff).

[jdmarch]

from SanskritFritz's German posts:

I have compared a 2M file and a 2k file with Beyond Compare and with ExamDiff. BC finds 6, ED over 10 (correct) matches! BC is faster, but probably the comparison buffer is too small, even with option "Sync quality: Slow and thorough".
... Beyond Compare has features, which ExamDiff does not have, but in this special case (where the difference between the two file sizes was enormously large) ED was the winner, even in the [ED] freeware version!

I agree that, under these conditions, BC's text comparison algorithms could use improvement, and I understand that the authors are working on this issue for the future. I use BC constantly to compare both folders and files because of its depth of features, strong user interface, and configurability, but I'm very glad to learn about ED for use comparing very asymmetric files.

(Please excuse my returning to this subject so often: as with TC, BC is one of the programs that I consider to be a an indispensable, always improving, miracle!)

[SanskritFritz]

Wow, nice translation! It is even better than my poor german
Otherwise i absolutely agree with you concerning BC.

[Jonas]

as long as diff is unavailable under Windows...

well, thanx to this open source project all the nice tools like diff, egrep, touch, etc... a available for windows too. They are all compiled nativly for win32 - no emulation-layer needed.

[jdmarch]

2SanskritFritz
> nice translation!
BabelFish gave me the meaning, then I edited it for comfort.

2jonas
>all the nice tools like diff, egrep, touch
Thank you!!

[jdmarch]

FYI to anyone following this thread. A very stable public beta of Beyond Compare 2.1 has just been released, with many new features.
http://www.scootersoftware.com/beta21.php

[interDist]

well, thanx to this open source project all the nice tools like diff, egrep, touch, etc... a available for windows too

Thanks for the information, Jonas!