Re: [Kdiff3-user] "virtual" directory compare

[Nick <no...@co...>]

The Meld diff/merge tool (http://meld.sourceforge.net) has built-in
knowledge of some version control systems, though I don't know if it
employs a plugin interface for that functionality.  You may want to take
a look at it for ideas on achieving your goal w/ KDiff3. 

Best regards,
Nick


On Thu, 2010-03-18 at 21:36 +0100, Joachim Eibl wrote:

> Hi Wladimir,
> 
> For the moment creating a local copy of your directory is the only 
> possibility.
> 
> Previously I had hopes, that some day a KIO-subsystem would do the job of 
> providing the frontend for a version. (Similar to clearcase dynamic views.) 
> But I don't know the current state about this.
> 
> As you say, a plugin system might help, but a different plugin for each 
> different version control system would be needed.
> 
> Perhaps someone wants to start such a project. It might even be best, if this 
> plugin system were an external library, usable by KDiff3 or other frontends.
> 
> For each VCS the commands and the usage are slightly different, so it would be 
> best if people who know their system and want to do some coding would 
> participate. Possibly I could help with defining the interface of the plugins 
> depending on the needs of KDiff3.
> 
> Or does such a thing already exist?
> 
> Cheers,
> Joachim
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > Hello KDiff3 developers and users,
> > 
> > First, congratulations, in my opinion kdiff3 is the best visual diff/merge
> > tool by far. I especially like the directory comparison.
> > 
> > One of my gripes about version control systems is that they pop up the diff
> > program for each file separately (git difftool, clearcase code inspection,
> > etc all have this problem). This is because they create two or three
> > temporary files, and call the diff tool for each file to be diffed/merged.
> > 
> > What would be the best way to use KDiff3 directory compare functionality in
> > this case, as the directory structure exists nowhere on disk?
> > 
> > The simplest (I guess) would be to make a front-end script that exports the
> > changed files in a temporary directory structure and call kdiff3 on it.
> > Personally, I don't really like the idea of creating a temporary directory
> > structure that much, as they need a (potentially) dangerous recursive
> >  delete to clean up, and leave waste files when the program exits
> >  unexpectedly.
> > 
> > As it is not practical to pass all that data [(path, (date1, content1),
> > (date2, content2), (date3, content3) ), ...] on the command line either,
> > I've been thinking about adding some kind of interface to provide "virtual"
> > files to KDiff3, for example via DBus-QT.  On the other hand, I don't want
> > to be dependent on the VFS services offered by KDE, as that wouldn't port
> >  to windows...
> > 
> > The other option would be to build the actual version control functionality
> > into KDiff3 (for example, using plugins), but I don't like that, as I don't
> > want to make it specific to any VCS, I just want another script or
> > application be able to invoke KDiff3 and compare anything.
> > 
> > So, overall, I guess the option to just create a temporary tree, even
> >  though a bit ugly, might be best...
> > 
> > Any input on this?
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > Wladimir
> > 
> 
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