Diff Utils - file and folder compare tools » Integration with Version Control Systems

Document management and version control

Bob Johnson — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:45:53 +0000

One of the most important destinations in document management is availability to track and store evolution of electronic documentation. In some cases it is very important to keep in good all stages of document creation from draft to final edition, its version control. Availability to find previous edition of required document can be necessary and critical in many chances. But it’s very difficult to catalogue performed corrections, compare and check modifications and so on without specialized software.

Compare Suite (www.comparesuite.com) – easy in use file and folder comparison tool can help to make this process easier. Compare Suite supports several comparison methods. One of them is comparison via command line with third party software. It is very interesting and useful method because from one side Compare Suite provides system of automated comparison and from another side you can choose Document Management System tool that suits for your needs.

Download Compare Suite

On Compare Suite’s web site you can find detailed lists of supported DMS and possibility integration it with Compare Suite command line comparison system. There are step-by-step tutorials for integration with some most popular DMS.

Meld

Bob Johnson — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:59:10 +0000

Meld it’s small diff and merge tool (less than 1 MB) from Stephen Kennedy. These applications are assigned for visual identification differences in files, folders and merge them if it’s required.Visually interface of Meld is ascetical – means that there are only the most necessary functions available in the main window: file, edit, settings and help sections.There are a few indispensable buttons to make work with the program faster and helpful as it’s possible:• New comparison – dialog to choose objects for comparison either files or directories (you are able to open more than two files or directories and edit them in place dynamically);• Save – possibility to save comparison results then use it for your needs (edit, print etc.);• Redo and Undo – buttons to discard or return changes in comparison results;• Cursors Up and Down – allows to moving up and down between differences to make view and work with changes easier and demonstrable;• Stop – button to stop comparison.So there are no difficulties also for inexperienced user to start working with this program. Besides basically features of file and directory comparison Meld has very useful feature: browse and view a working copy from popular version control systems such as CVS, Subversion, Bazaarng and Mercurial etc.Also one of advantages is full i18n support it means that Meld adapted to different languages and regional differences – 18 stands for the number of letters are available to work with: bg, ca, cs, de, en_CA, en_GB, es, fr, hu, it, ja, ko, ne, nl, pa, pt, pt_BR, ru, rw, sr, sr@Latn, sv, vi, zh_CN, zh_TW. It’s very helpful because one of the problems of similar software is impossibility to work with international characters correctly. Meld is published by GPL license so it’s absolutely free. Currently this application is available for Linux and Mac platforms.

Guiffy

Bob Johnson — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:54:19 +0000

Guiffy Software (http://www.guiffy.com/) released version 8.4 of their comparison product. Let’s take a look.Guiffy 8.4 is a Java application, so virtual Java machine must to be installed in your system to run the program (my Java Runtime Environment 6 with update 6 correctly recognized and program was started). Distributive size is about 31 megabytes and installed to 87 megabytes.This program is shareware, so after running yon can either run 21-day evaluation version with restriction to 321 lines per file or request temporary registration key to discard this restriction. I’ve filled in a form on the site but unfortunately didn’t receive temporary key, so I tried with small files. Interface of Guiffy is very simple and clear; you can find most of necessary functions available as button in the main window: diff, merge, and folder compare options, etc. Open files/folders dialog allow to not only choose required files/folders for comparison but can also help you to merge differences in files after comparison to the first or the second choosen file. Of course standard comparison is also available so you can see differences or changes in the files on split window and edit or correct if needed. Report in Guiffy is the full copy of compare window just generated into HTML. It’s very interested feature as data in the report absolutely the same as you see it in comparison window. You can easily open report in any suitable editor and correct it or just print from your favorite browser with all appearance. Very useful feature is command line interface and possibility of integration with the most popular CM systems: AccuRev, Allfusion Harvest, ClearCase, CMSynergy, Dimensions, MKS Integrity, Perforce, PVCS, StarTeam, and Visual Studio Team Foundation Server.As Java-based Guiffy is cross-platform application so can be used on operation systems like: Windows, Linux, MacOS, and UNIX.A Single User license costs $66(dollars U.S.) and entitles you to use Guiffy on an unlimited number of platforms. Includes 12 months of Support, Updates, and Upgrades.