[sorry for the delay in approving, the group did not informed us of the
mail,need to check the settings!!]
--- In elliecomputing_group@yahoogroups.com, "opsx" <opsx@...> wrote:
>
> Hello,
> I am a frequent user of the file comparison/diff application WinMerge.
I am looking into comparable software, but I have a specific need in
mind, that so far I have not found in any available software (that i
know of anyways).
>
> Since I am a computer programmer. most files I compare for differences
end up being source code. I was wondering if it would be possible to
have a function level text comparison on top of normal text comparison.
I have found that most diff tools I have found have trouble when it
comes to comparing source files whose functions may be longer in one
file, out of order, or have similar text in closely related functions,
or other sorts of overlaps that can occur due to normal coding structure
and habits. Is this a feasible feature? Or are there other suggestions
for obtaining better comparison results and more efficient merging of
source code files? Being able to compare just the text within function
scoping as well as text comparison if desired would be tremendously
helpful.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>

this is indeed a feature which could be really useful. I see several
problems here however which may be all quite complex to solve:

* true or almost true parsing of various languages
* ordering problems when merging or presenting text

If we take actions in this direction, we'll keep a specific list of
interested users updated, to get registered in this list please contact
info@... <mailto:info@...>

Best regards
The Ellié Computing Team




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