edit in both files?

[jeffhostetler]

Thanks for the note. I'll log a request for an rsync-mode.

jeff

[nanite2000]

Thanks for the note. I'll log a request for an rsync-mode.

jeff

Hi,

I just registered to add my support for editing both files.

Thanks!

[Beth]

I've added your vote. Thank you for your feedback.

F: 13510

[shurcooL]

I've already posted in this thread, because ability to edit both files is the #1 most-anticipated feature for me.

However, I want to add the following website:

http://www.quickdiff.com/

It has come to be PRECISELY because of the need to quickly compare to pieces of text, when you don't want to deal with existing files per se.

DiffMerge, if it allowed editing both sides, would be able to handle that case even better, because quickdiff.com only lets you compare two pieces of text, it doesn't let you edit them in-place.

I'd be willing to pay money for DiffMerge if that would bring the ability to edit both files, not just the right one. It's so frustrating to be unable to use your favourite diff tool because it doesn't support this feature, and it's closed source so I can't do anything about it other than to post here...

[Beth]

shurcooL: Just to make sure I understand this fully. Do you need to edit both sides at the same time, or is it a case where the file you need to edit just happens to be on the side that is non-editable?

It's possible to quickly swap which side a file shows up on by returning to the Open File Diff and clicking the Swap button.

[shurcooL]

Beth, I would definitely like to be able to edit text on both sides of the pane (not just the right side) without having to reload any files.

First, it's not possible to "quickly swap" files because the Swap button on OS X version of DiffMerge is missing for some reason. It takes a lot of keystrokes (cutting, pasting, setting cursor) and mouse movements just to swap two files, putting a large barrier in front of you when you just want to quickly made 1 small change to the file on the left hand side.



More importantly, what I often want to compare/edit/merge is often just two pieces of text (coming from clipboard). They are not files.

So, ideally, I'd like to be able to open just a blank DiffMerge file comparison window with two empty panes, and paste piece of text A into left side, paste another text B into the right side, and then make changes to both sides (usually to merge two things into one, or to see the difference between them, etc.).

Right now I typically have to create dummy files that I paste text in and then open (which means navigating to where the dummy files are located) them in DiffMerge, and hope that all the changes will only need to be done on the right side. But if I ever need to make a change to the left side, I'm out of luck (it's too much of a barrier to get it done).

In summary, DiffMerge is the best tool I know of for comparing files/folders. It is great for editing the file on the right, but since you can't edit the one on the left, it makes two-way merges very inconvenient (one-way merges are perfect, however). Finally, it is a really poor tool for comparing two pieces of text that you have in your clipboard (because you have no choice but to create dummy text files, paste the contents of the clipboard there, then compare those files using DiffMerge).

[Virgil Smith]

"It's possible to quickly swap which side a file shows up on by returning to the Open File Diff and clicking the Swap button."

Ah, but it does not respect/remember command line parameters so I CAN'T follow your advice when the diff was started by an SCM tool (Vault included). This would have saved me 15-20 minutes today.

Of course if DiffMerge would save a file after I edit out a trailing linefeed at the end of a file or if the Vault Merge Branches Wizard would not insert them in the first place that would have saved me multiple hours today/yesterday.

Are there posts/feature requests to fix those two?
Is the injection of newlines in Vault merged output even related to DiffMerge?

[c32hedge]

Please add my vote to allow editing both files. Use cases:

* comparing two text snippets (might actually be two different parts of the same file that I've copy-pasted into temporary files to compare and clean up).
* keeping two similar but distinct files up to date (i.e. one isn't a newer version of the other).
* getting the order wrong when opening the files to begin with (yes, this has the simple-on-some-OS's-workaround of swapping the files).
* just liking having the left pane be the newer file.
* probably more.

Also, please add my vote to use an open voting system (e.g. JIRA issues) so your team can spend more time acting on votes instead of having to add them.

[Beth]

I'll add your votes.

Are you using DiffMerge alone or within an SCM? That makes a difference, because an SCM has some more options.


V: G5791, G3357, G5782, G0847
F: 13510,

[shurcooL]

Beth, I'm not sure if you're asking me or the two people above.

In case it's me... I'm not sure what you mean by SCM. Are you referring to Source Code Management, like VCS (Version Control System)? For example, Git, Mercurial, etc.?

If so, the answer is I use DiffMerge mostly standalone. As I mentioned in my posts above, the content often comes from clipboard. It's usually parts of files I'm editing or working with that come from my editor, from github, a snippet somewhere, etc.

[Beth]

Thanks. I did mean source code management systems, so you answered my question.

[c32hedge]

So...7 years now. Any progress? Also, if you were asking me about SCM, yes, we use git. But we still end up with situations like "similar" files that aren't an old vs. new version of each other where being able to edit both sides in the same session would be very helpful.

[Beth]

I don't have anything new to report yet, but I will definitely post back to this thread when I do.