Official TkDiff Version 5.4 is released

Yes - it is April Fools Day - but this release is REAL.
Version 5.4 not only extends (and admittedly repairs) the VPATH feature of its predecessor (there WAS a tendency to incorrectly not find legitimate predecessor files if the Current Working Directory (CWD) didn't happen to BE the directory that was defined as FIRST within the VPATH environment variable). This now works properly and the CWD can be ANYWHERE within ANY of the named directories. In a sense, this permits dynamic scoping of the declared VPATH file-space, without the need to edit the Environment Variable explicitly.

In the "What's NEW" category there is a big feature many people have requested to better represent the options USED when performing a Diff telling it to SUPPRESS certain categories of "white-space differences" as "unimportant". These options DO work (and always have) but TkDiff, and in particular the INLINE difference highlighting never HONORED any of those options, effectively SHOWING that which you didn't WANT to see! NO LONGER. You can now tell TkDiff which of the FIVE different suppression categories you want to NOT see. And that decision can be made independently of what you choose to tell the Diff engine to consider as different. By decoupling what you wish to see, versus what you want actually treated AS a difference, you can make certain that merges you perform do not mangle the RESULTANT White-Space in the produced file. OR you can simply ALIGN the two groups of settings and directly see why Diff chose any particular line. Or any combination in-between.

But there is yet ANOTHER major feature which is an ability to maintain multiple Preference files. Why need more than one? Some people find themselves trying to handle several Source Code Management (SCM) systems from the same cockpit. By providing more than one file, they no longer need to continually re-tune the tool settings at each session. It is recommend to read the online Help on this topic as it does not just "happen" out of the box.

The last new feature is one you can't see, but can appreciate nonetheless. Various users have noted odd discrepancies (usually small) in the ability of TkDiff to scroll its windows synchronously on demand or as a preference. Indeed this has been one of the primary features to always present a "comparative" view of the files. Such discrepancies should now (and forever) just be GONE. The cause was tracked back to an inadequacy of the TK support library prior to the TK-8.6.5 release. However TkDiff not only found a way to solve this problem, it did so WITHOUT requiring anything more than the current TK-8.5 release it already uses. And it will automatically utilize the newer TK support when it becomes available in YOUR environment - no further changes required!

So that's the NEW release. There is yet more expanded Help info, and even another minor new preference: "file exclusion patterns" when searching in directories for file pairings. As always we welcome input, questions, ideas, comments. Open source is a conversation; talk to us. Enjoy!