Unable to edit

[vrapp]

I'm using DiffMerge from within Vault. Here lies confusion #1: according to Help/About in DiffMerge, it is version 4.1.4 ; but here on the website I see "DiffMerge 3.3 is now available". So, what do I have?

The main problem however is this. I see that I can edit the right panel or apply detected changes when I compare two files. But when in Vault I compare working version to the repository version, it looks like editing is impossible. Is it by design?

[jeffhostetler]

Sorry for the confusion. The stand-alone edition has its own numbering
system from the edition included with Vault/Fortress. This is a somewhat
historical artifact from the way we originally only bundled DiffMerge with
Vault/Fortress and didn't have a stand-alone version. For the bundled
builds of the product, the DiffMerge version number matches the Vault/Fortress
version number. Feature-wise, the Vault 4.1.4 / Fortress 2.1.4 version of
DiffMerge (released 11/2008) is somewhere between the stand-alone 3.2.0
(released 5/2008) and 3.3.0 (released 4/2009). It mainly has bug-fixes; most
of the new features in 3.3.0 are not in the x.1.4 version. The 3.3.0 version
will be included in Vault 5.0 / Fortress 2.0 (which are currently in Beta)
(and it'll be labeled 5.0.0 or 2.0.0). Clear as mud, right? Eventually, I
want to change this and have just 1 version number rather than 3, but I'm
not when that'll happen. Again, sorry for the confusion.

If you want to force Vault to use the 3.3.0 version of DiffMerge, simply change
the pathname to the DiffMerge executable in the Diff/Merge page of the Vault
Options dialog. By default it is set to "%VAULT_EXE_DIR%/sgdm.exe". Change it
to "C:\Program Files\SourceGear\DiffMerge\DiffMerge.exe".

WRT not being able to edit. When Vault launches DiffMerge, it passes the --ro2
flag to tell DiffMerge to make the right panel read-only. This is for safety.
(Well, in the case of diffing a historical version against the checked-out version
in the working-directory, it is too restrictive; but in the case of diffing 2 historical
versions, it is the right thing to do.) You can override this by editing the command
line options on the Diff/Merge page of the Vault Options dialog. Simply remove the
"--ro2" from the Diff Arguments. But be careful, this will change it for all invocations
of DiffMerge (both the ones where it makes sense and the ones where it doesn't).

Let me know if you have any questions,

jeff

[vrapp]

Thanks for the clarification.

> but in the case of diffing 2 historical versions, it is the right thing to do.

I'd think, it should be Vault that should make impossible editing of the historical versions by any client, rather than relying on the client not to do it.

[vrapp]

btw, regarding the version, here's kinda bug report, a cosmetic issue. Even though DiffMerge in Vault says it's 4.1.4, it's Help says it's 3.2. Those rare individuals who know how to press F1 may be confused

[jeffhostetler]

WRT not letting you edit historical files, yes Vault takes care of that.
I misspoke. I was simply saying that if Vault gives DiffMerge 2 temp file
containing the historical versions, you might be annoyed/confused if
you make edits to one of the temp files and then we delete it when the
diff window is closed and you thought you were editing the live version.
By having DiffMerge mark the window read-only, you'd have to go through
some extra steps before you could "accidentally" edit it.

WRT the manual version number. Thanks.

jeff

[vrapp]

Just as a friendly suggestion: I think, the most solid solution would be if the client figured out from the server that the file is read-only already at the opening, and set the mode appropriately. A real file also can be read-only, so this would be useful there as well - it's like MS Word works when you open read-only file. Also, maybe it would be interesting to consider the possibility of editing the last repository version and allow saving it back to server as regular check-in.

[jeffhostetler]

I'll log a feature request covering this.

thanks,

jeff

14570

[Bkowald]

Hey Jeff,
When I diff, the right panel is the repository version, and I need to edit the left pane, the working version. I tried removing the /ro1 from the command line, but the left panel stays read only. Is my only recourse to reverse the panes?
Thanks,
Brian

[jeffhostetler]

Yes. We only support editing in the right panel of a diff (and the middle panel of a merge).
Put the working folder copy on the right and you should be fine.

(The /ro1 flag is historical. It was used by the first version of DiffMerge. The new one
allows (but doesn't do anything with) the flag so that scripts and etc won't fail.)

jeff