File-compare by content
Posted: 2021-04-30, 14:57 UTC
Sorry if this is a silly question but I am new to this forum.
I love TC for Android because the usual file-managers there are just crap in comparison to TCA. However knowing also the TC-desktop-version for Windows there are still some serious drawbacks. Of course this is mostly due to the scaled-down functionality of the OS and the small-area screens of mobile phones, I understand that.
Still there is one field in particular where those leaned-down features seem to hurt most - and that is the domain of file and/or directory comparison.
My searches in web and forum have brought up somewhat contradictory information so far.
Question: does the latest TCA-version contain some basic file-comparison utility/functionality or not?
IMHO even a simple answer "files are identical - or not" based on binary content and regardless of name or size would help a lot as there seem to be no proper utilities in this field for Android. Yes, there is "difftool", but the file-selection-process in there alone is clumsy to the max b/c it does not offer a 2-panel display - like TCA - to simply select the files to compare. And for instance when trying to compare .apk-application-files I have been unable to select those files as a whole without entering the archive first and then having to select the whole inner structure.
Sometimes I have different versions of .apk_s of interest from slightly suspicious sources or want to delete older versions of the same type of .apk. File date alone or meaningless names won't help in any case and sometimes those files are identical albeit with different names or date. But without a comparison-tool it is hard to decide which one of them can be deleted without concern.
I am aware of the numerous requests to implement File-Synchronization like in TC-Win but so far Mr. Ghisler has been reluctant about that for valid reasons of screen-size and complexity. And of course I would support all those requests if some adapted ways of small-screen-representation could be made feasible.
But why not start with some simple compare-by-content-functionality for files (for instance with a vertically-split HEX-display) and simple directory-comparison by color-marking identical files and differences in both panels first? It's about time!
I love TC for Android because the usual file-managers there are just crap in comparison to TCA. However knowing also the TC-desktop-version for Windows there are still some serious drawbacks. Of course this is mostly due to the scaled-down functionality of the OS and the small-area screens of mobile phones, I understand that.
Still there is one field in particular where those leaned-down features seem to hurt most - and that is the domain of file and/or directory comparison.
My searches in web and forum have brought up somewhat contradictory information so far.
Question: does the latest TCA-version contain some basic file-comparison utility/functionality or not?
IMHO even a simple answer "files are identical - or not" based on binary content and regardless of name or size would help a lot as there seem to be no proper utilities in this field for Android. Yes, there is "difftool", but the file-selection-process in there alone is clumsy to the max b/c it does not offer a 2-panel display - like TCA - to simply select the files to compare. And for instance when trying to compare .apk-application-files I have been unable to select those files as a whole without entering the archive first and then having to select the whole inner structure.
Sometimes I have different versions of .apk_s of interest from slightly suspicious sources or want to delete older versions of the same type of .apk. File date alone or meaningless names won't help in any case and sometimes those files are identical albeit with different names or date. But without a comparison-tool it is hard to decide which one of them can be deleted without concern.
I am aware of the numerous requests to implement File-Synchronization like in TC-Win but so far Mr. Ghisler has been reluctant about that for valid reasons of screen-size and complexity. And of course I would support all those requests if some adapted ways of small-screen-representation could be made feasible.
But why not start with some simple compare-by-content-functionality for files (for instance with a vertically-split HEX-display) and simple directory-comparison by color-marking identical files and differences in both panels first? It's about time!