Software Engineering Stack Exchange
Software Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [diff]

20 questions
12
votes
1 answer

Heuristic Approach for Flexible DIFF Implementation

I have created a DIFF implementation to compare document revisions at work. It is based on An O(ND) Difference Algorithm and Its Variations. One thing that has become important is to take the list of changes and interpret them into human readable…
ptpaterson
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9
votes
3 answers

How do most sync programs monitor file changes?

Do sync programs like Dropbox typically track file changes by doing byte by byte comparisons, or using hashes, or using diff / keeping local commit logs like version control, or what?
mcandre
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8
votes
3 answers

Choosing a diff program for Mercurial

I decided to try to contribute Firefox development, and they use Mercurial for source control. In the documentation about using Mercurial it was advised to choose a diff program and to do it before you start coding. They list a bunch of options, one…
EpsilonVector
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8
votes
4 answers

How can I display a diff result in a single file or document?

I'm reviewing my peer's code. I use SourceGear DiffMerge as my diff program, on a Windows environment. While I'm using the diff program, I can clearly see the code changes, etc. Is it possible to save the diff display somehow, with all its colorful…
Ron Klein
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6
votes
3 answers

Can I release a git patch (diff) file of closed source/copyright code?

I've patched a bug in some code that is no longer being supported by it's owner but I would like to provide this to other members of the community. A git.patch file technically contains copyright source code (in order to show what is…
Simon Stevens
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5
votes
1 answer

How to use external file comparer in MS TFS

I don't like ms diff that integrated into Visual Studio 2008 TFS Edition. Is it possible to change this file comparer to external one (Beyond Compare, for example)?
Zzz
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4
votes
3 answers

Finding difference in a big live (almost identical) databases

I have a replicated database (not SQL, a triple store, but specifics should not matter too much) running on several hosts. Each of them holds a copy of the database which is updated by feeding from certain outside source, and the copies should be…
StasM
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4
votes
1 answer

Why doesn't Google use Courgette for Android updates?

Google has an advanced diff tool specifically designed for compiled binaries called Courgette. Is there any reason why they wouldn't use this in Android and the Google Play Store to download updates? In my basic understanding of Java, it seems like…
you786
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4
votes
3 answers

Can we reduce confusion in line-based diff tools by annotating the code with some unique tokens?

Let's say I have procedure1() { --body of first procedure-- } Then I rename it into procedure2 and create a procedure1 above it: procedure1() { --body of second procedure-- } procedure2() { --body of first procedure-- } Not once a…
Jay Lorn
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4
votes
1 answer

Moving past the ignoring or considering whitespace binary: how should I compare files for e.g. commit review?

I am dissatisfied with the file comparison tools I have worked with so far. While no tool would be able to always predict the line matchings that make best sense, at least current tools should be able to do a better job when changes mostly consist…
Pierre Lebeaupin
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4
votes
1 answer

How does a binary delta update work?

Both Android and iOS seem to support their application having a binary delta update. But how does it work? I build a binary program, neither of the distribution sites have the source code - how does the update process know what is changed?
Ted Wong
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3
votes
2 answers

universally understood file-diff format

I've always assumed that the output from diff (typically "unified", whether or not it's colorized) is universally understood among most if not all text-based language programmers. Whether it's used due to version control or just comparing two…
r2evans
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3
votes
3 answers

What can I do to let our team have code reviews of branch merges having hundreds of screens worth of Github diffs?

"Code review" (aka "peer review") seems like a really great idea, so my team started practicing it. For a little while it worked well, but then a co-worker merged a branch in, and asked for a review of the code. When I went to review her code, the…
machineghost
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3
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1 answer

What does "windowed streaming" stand for?

So I was asking around the Mercurial development mailing list about binary diffing and patch handling and I got the following examples: whole file approaches (classic diff, bsdiff, Mercurial's internal bdiff) windowed streaming approaches (rsync,…
dukeofgaming
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2
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1 answer

What is a good approach to handle editing product images?

You have the following situation: You have an SQL database containing two tables product and product_images You would like the user to be able to add, remove, or move around existing images They can perform those actions from a form which downloads…
Mehdi Saffar
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