tkdiff Files

V 5.0             (06/08/2020):

• New-Diff Dialog can now request Conflict file comparisons
  • It also permits choosing a preferred SCM system from among those
  • detected, and is now ALWAYS the defaulted first operation when
  • NO command line arguments are given - UNLESS one specific user
  • preference has PREVIOUSLY been set which requests that the SCM
  • inquire for currently uncommitted changes and supply those as
  • parameters instead (not all SCMs can do this). For those that do,
  • that search request may ALSO be accessed for the current session
  • via the Dialog, even when such preference has been set to Off.
• CVS (like Git and Subversion) is now capable of automatic inquiry
• ALL SCMs capable of inquiry also pass CONFLICTED files when found
• URLs (Svn style) are now accepted as FileSpecs in Dialog or Cmd use.
  • Including both versioned and defaulted styles, and as an Ancestor.
• Multiple SCM involvement is now possible.
• Merging when using an Ancestor file (ie. a 3-way diff) now provides
  • Ancestral markers for deletion activities, similar to those
  • already provided for additions, which also participate in both
  • automatic merge selection choices AND collision detection, all in
  • support of assuring that COMPLETE changes from both files being
  • merged are accounted for.
• Upgraded Conflictfile parsing to accept diff3-style file content
  • providing the ability to treat it as in a 3-way Diff mode.
• Interactive diff-region suppression (ie. ignoring) is now possible
• Eliminated a TK-update race condition that was randomly responsible
  • for odd crashes and potentially inconsistent screen updates
• Minor feature enhancements:
  • Window manager is now provided a graphic to represent TkDiff
  • Displayed file NAMES now try to be shorter by truncating the CWD
  • Failed (or inconsistent) Diff executions are no longer fatal
  • 3-way Diffs using a non-unique Ancestor now simply drops 3-way mode
• Small repairs involving: line numbering; Mac tooltip rendering;
  • several hilighting anomolies involving suppressed Diff regions;
  • and missing bindings when positioned over various Text-adjacent
  • Info windows involving scroll operations. Lastly, filenames with
  • sensitive characters (Dollar, square-Bracket) in their names
  • will no longer crash, and the default setting for Filebrowser
  • view-content filters is now specified properly.
• And the builtin Help is updated to cover aspects of ALL the changes

This major release is the culmination of nearly two years of work designed to bring TkDiff into the 21st century, while still retaining (or even enhancing) its speed, simplicity, stability and versatility. Many of the newer or re-engineered features of the V4.3.x series of releases are now housed in a fully rearchitected internal design that was crafted to eliminate many of the problems that came from years of piecemeal growth and add-on capabilities that while likely inovative for their time, never quite integrated in a way that could sustain future growth.

Thus, while some of the capabilities listed above may not sound as shiny or exciting as perhaps they might have some years ago, it finally exposes the rather lengthy list of capabilities that exist and finally ties many of them together to enable workflows that many have never before, been envisioned. Such as utilizing two different SCM systems to address the code warriors that prefer one system over another, but are hamstrung into using their non-preferred choice because of long entrenched rules. Or perhaps has less than ideal network connectivity and could benefit from using a non-network based SCM solution for day-to-day work and later can post their changes to the "approved" SCM when convenient, or when the Internet comes back up.

Of the many items listed above, obviously considerable work has gone into the startup Dialog, making sure that the many ways of invoking TkDiff are provided in a concise and highly interactive manner. Also 3-way Diffs, which is the backbone of todays SCM philosophy (merge, do not lock) has been made considerably easier to establish. But more importantly is perhaps, for the first time now, capable of showing the other half of code changes - the DELETIONS which when merging software are every bit as important as the additions that everyone has based their decisions on, practically forever. Read the online Help, and TkDiff will explain to you what you have been missing.

Another NEW, but perhaps odd sounding feature, is an ability to effectively eliminate any diff region for which it was not possible to construct a safe regular expression "rule" to do it FOR you. Simply make that region the CDR, and in one click its as if TkDiff never knew it was there. Of course, if you re-invoke Diff, it is a task you will have to repeat a second time. You can even utilize this ability in conjunction with the "Split" machinery to first isolate the lines you ultimately wish to ignore.

But some of the smaller items deserve consideration as well. Such as TkDiff becomming more forgiving of small mistakes (like choosing the wrong revision for an Ancestor and ending up with an identical file to one of its claimed successors). As an Ancestor its useless, but no reason to just crash and burn. And while talking about small changes, you do need to be made aware of the one about badly specified File Browser file-filters that control what you can see in those convenient point-and-click dialogs. The importance of this fix is that if you have previously saved your User Preferences at some time in the past, you may already be infected with the bad values, which will persist until you forcibly REMOVE it from your preferences file (upon which TkDiff will use - and eventually save, when you choose so - the corrected default values), OR you go read the Help data which explains the correct way to format the data, and you edit and re-save your preferences.

The Bug fixes, well, are just that. Mistakes that others happenned to notice and speak up about. As developers, we dont take that stuff personally. Its that kind of community that makes software like this just get better.

For the record, starting from V4.3, nearly 54% of the code has been refactored. We invite any one seeking deeper insight into how the tool now functions to inquire at the TkDiff Discussion forum: https://sourceforge.net/p/tkdiff/discussion

The provided zipfile will unzip to its own subdirectory named "tkdiff-5-0" containing a README.txt file (having installation instructions), a Changelog file to highlight current (and past) modifications, the actual tkdiff Tcl script, and the (required) copy of the GNU License. We hope you find this new version both useful and reliable. Feel free to leave reviews, trouble tickets, new ideas, cookies and milk; whatever you would like.