Re: [Kdiff3-user] kdiff3 bugs and comments

[Joachim E. <joa...@gm...>]

Hi William,

On Tuesday 03 May 2005 22:42, William S Fulton wrote:
> Firstly, thanks for a cool app, it is much appreciated. Here are some
> comments for improvement and a bug or two.
>
> Keys don't work when results of a directory diff are first shown, eg
> CTRL - right to expand directory in the file list (a non-visible window
> seems to have the focus).

I can confirm that it can be difficult to tell if the directory window has the 
focus. The text windows have focus when their title is drawn with the full 
background color. But by clicking into the directory window (or by using 
Alt-Left or Alt-Right) you can change the focus. Then this should again work 
correctly.

>
> The list of files is not shown when re-starting the program for
> directory diffs. This appears to happen every second invocation of the
> program.

Very odd. I can't reproduce that. Please specify what you mean by 
"restarting" (what do you do and what is the state before you do it?) What 
exactly is visible instead of the list of files?

> Biggest problem is that a bit of polish is needed to be used as a
> directory diff tool when compared to Kompare and some other diff tools.
> I've been using Kompare for a while, but the latest SuSE has removed
> this package and seemingly replaced it with kdiff3.

Very odd, since the source and debuginfo packages of kdesdk3 are on 
ftp.suse.com. (Kompare would be in kdesdk3.) Perhaps the binary is only on 
the DVDs.

> There is a need for 
> better keyboard handling so that one can easily view all the diffs
> across all files using keyboard shortcuts. The keyboard shortcut
> currently only work for diffs in one file. Something like ctrl UP/DOWN
> to scroll through them all (when top window containing the filenames has
> focus - with diffs automatically appearing in the lower half). So CTRL
> arrow keys need to work the same as in the diff windows, but will scroll
> through *all* files. Or use CTRL-SHIFT keys, like I recall Kompare uses.

The philosophy in KDiff3 is slightly different. Using menu 
"Directory"->"Start/Continue Directory Merge" (F7) would allow you to compare 
and merge several files.
I could add something like CTRL-SHIFT-Up/Down that jumps to the next different 
file and - like doubleclick - starts either a comparison or merge (depending 
on whether a directory comparison or merge is running. Would you want that?

> Need to automatically remember and select the last files/directories
> merged, so that I don't have to reselect them each time (when restarting
> GUI program, so that it works like File, Open menu, which does remember
> the last files diff'd).

The combo boxes in the open dialog remember their history. (That is all files 
and directories that were selected via the GUI.)
If that's not what you need, please give me more information on that topic.

> CTRL-UP or CTRL-DOWN moves to next diff (great shortcut, but it also
> scrolls when got to end of file. So ctrl arrow keys have two functions
> which make it confusing to use. UP or DOWN by itself does scrolling, so
> there isn't really a need for CTRL arrow keys to do this too.

This will be fixed in the next version.

> When selecting to show a file's differences from the list of files, the
> 2 files are opened in the bottom quarter of the screen. With one or two
> files/directories in the listing, half the screen is showing white
> space. Suggest, the 2 files automatically fill the wasted space or
> remember the size of the windows since the last program invocation. Or
> have the files fill up all of the bottom part of the program window,
> except for showing 3 or 4 files in the top window.

I will try to implement the "remember the size"-feature.

> Suggest, the Information dialog (with Number of subdirectories etc)
> shown at the end of the scan has an option to be suppressed and put the
> information in a status bar somewhere... one less tedious keypress/mouse
> action for repetitive use of kdiff3.

You must be using KDiff3 really a lot ;-). I'll see what I can do.

Cheers,
Joachim