\begindata{text,17907684} \textdsversion{12} \template{help} \define{global } \chapter{Ezdiff: An interactive diff package for EZ } \section{What Ezdiff is }\leftindent{\section{ }Ezdiff is an interactive \italic{diff} package for \helptopic{EZ}. It can compare two similar text buffers, and find any differences between them. You can then highlight the lines containing the differences, one at a time. Ezdiff uses the stardard Unix \italic{diff} command, which doesn't understand styles and insets. Therefore, if there is a difference in the styles but not in the text, Ezdiff will not notice it. Similarly, if there is a difference in the contents of an inset, Ezdiff will not notice that. (It \italic{will} notice if there is an inset in one file which is missing entirely in the other.) If you have your text organized in automatically-wrapped paragraphs with a newline at the end of each paragraph, Ezdiff will be less specific. It will only be able to locate differences by paragraph; each entire paragraph which contains one or more differences will be marked. This is, again, because Unix \italic{diff} treats such paragraphs as one long line, and cannot locate differences more precisely than by line. To enable Ezdiff, add the following lines to your ezinit file: addmenu ezdiff-start "Diff,Start~40" textview addmenu ezdiff-current "Diff,Current~20" textview addmenu ezdiff-next "Diff,Next~21" textview addmenu ezdiff-last "Diff,Last~22" textview addmenu ezdiff-change "Diff,Change~30" textview These lines create a new \italic{Diff} menu card containing five options: \bold{Start}, \bold{Current}, \bold{Next}, \bold{Last}, and \bold{Change}. If you wish, you can also bind the functions listed above to keybindings. For example: addkey ezdiff-next ^X^Z textview addkey ezdiff-start ^X^A textview If you want to learn more about keybindings, or initfiles in general, see the \italic{ \helptopic{initfiles} } help document. } \section{Starting Ezdiff} \leftindent{ Before using Ezdiff, you must start an EZ window with one file, split the window, and visit the file that you want to diff in the new window. To start Ezdiff on the two files, click inside the first file, expose the menus, and choose "Start." Then click in the second window and choose "Start" from the menus in that window. You will see the following prompt before the diff begins: Ignore blanks ? [n] To ignore the blanks in the file, type "y" and press Enter. To include blanks in the diff, just press Enter. When the diff is finished, the message "Diff completed" appears in the message area. There is one ezdiff preference. Placing the following line in your preference file will tell ezdiff to always ignore blanks, and will prevent you from seeing the above \italic{ignore blanks} prompt: *.AlwaysIgnoreBlanks:yes Ezdiff works by moving the selection in each file to highlight the first difference. To move on to the next difference, choose Next. To see the previous difference, choose "Last." The "Next" and "Last" operations are relative to the current selection, so to find the differences in a particular section of a file, just move the selection to that area and use these operations. To redisplay the current difference again, choose "Current" from the menus. Editing operations are not affected by the diff, nor will editing cause the marked differences to get out of sync. Restarting Ezdiff on a file that has already been diffed causes the following message to appear: Diff exists. Reinitialize ? [n] To restart Ezdiff, type "y" and press Enter. To continue working with the current diff, just press Enter. } \section{Pop-up Menu Meanings} If you put the addmenu lines shown above into your ezinit file, you will receive the following menu options, in addition to the regular EZ menus. Next and Last are always relative to the currently-selected difference: \leftindent{ \bold{Start:} If this option is chosen inside two different files, Ezdiff starts. (See above). \bold{Current:} Reselects the current difference in both of the files. \bold{Next:} Moves the diff forward and selects the next difference between the two files. \bold{Last:} Moves the diff backwards and selects the previous difference between the two files. \bold{Change:} This changes the text of the currently-selected difference in the current window to be identical that in the other window. } \section{Related tools} Select (put a box around) one of the italicized names and choose "Get Help on Selected Word" from the pop-up menu to see the help file for: \leftindent{\italic{\helptopic{ez} \helptopic{ctext} \helptopic{diff} \helptopic{initfiles}}} \begindata{bp,17958800} \enddata{bp,17958800} \view{bpv,17958800,0,0,0} Copyright 1992 Carnegie Mellon University and IBM. All rights reserved. \smaller{\smaller{$Disclaimer: Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice, this permission notice, and the following disclaimer appear in supporting documentation, and that the names of IBM, Carnegie Mellon University, and other copyright holders, not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission. IBM, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY, AND THE OTHER COPYRIGHT HOLDERS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL IBM, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY, OR ANY OTHER COPYRIGHT HOLDER BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. $ }}\enddata{text,17907684}