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Meld is a visual diff and merge tool targeted at developers

meldmerge.org

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Re: Meld is a visual diff and merge tool targeted at developers

#111

Post by oneplane »

HelloNurse wrote: post #59

> On OS X, Meld is not yet officially supported. For pre-built binaries, these OS X builds are the best option. > You can also get Meld from MacPorts, Fink or Brew; none of these methods are supported. Can anyone recommend any of these unsupported options? The best diff GUI tool I've been able to find for OSX is DiffMerge ( https://sourcegear.com/diffmerge/ ) on the App Store, and I'd like to have a tree view for fol…

Sometimes when I want a visual representation I use Apple's FileMerge, but for everything else I just use diff and patch.

Re: Meld is a visual diff and merge tool targeted at developers

#112

Post by LeicaLatte »

brunno wrote: post #40

As a long time Sublime Text[1] user, I've been using Sublime Merge[2] since the day it's been launched and it brings me the same speed and minimalism I get with Sublime Text and has evolved quite a lot to be able to do most things I need in a merge tool. Not affiliated with them in any way by the way. [1] https://www.sublimetext.com/ [2] https://www.sublimemerge.com/

I don't understand the comparison. Isn't meld free?

Re: Meld is a visual diff and merge tool targeted at developers

#114

Post by oneplane »

pxeger1 wrote: post #100

What is the use case for a tool like this? I've never felt the need for anything beyond `git diff` (which uses `less`)

It depends on the user I suppose. I use the `git diff` and bare `diff` and `patch` commands which works fine for me, but there are a lot of people who either just don't like it or don't want to dive that deep into those tools.

Re: Meld is a visual diff and merge tool targeted at developers

#115

Post by memsom »

dataflow wrote: post #73
diego_moita wrote: post #16

IMHO, Meld is the second best open source tool for doing this. On Windows, WinMerge[1] is a better alternative. Too bad is Windows only. For a non-FOSS and cross platform solution I recommend BeyondCompare (U$30.00)[2]. It replicates most of WinMerge UI. [1] https://winmerge.org/ [2] https://scootersoftware.com/

I actually don't understand what people love about BC. The only thing I find it extremely useful for is the occasional files where inline diffs are practically mandatory, like CSVs. Other than that, I generally find it frustrating compared to TortoiseGitMerge, except perhaps for some very specific/unusual scenarios. In particular the line highlighting is annoying - instead of coloring the lines that were added vs. re…

I’ve been using BC since the early 2000’s, so probably more than 15 years. I know it backwards and forwards. If you set it up right, it is pretty powerful. It allows a lot of the stuff that other tools fail on to be overcome. Manual alignment is a dream. The rules based comparison is very nice. Ignoring unimportant differences removes pretty much all the white space differences. The ease of selecting arbitrary blocks and moving them left or right is powerful. I’ve tried both Windiff and kdiff3 and both have missing features.

Back before git, it was common to take a massive set of changes and merge them manually when merging branches, and BC was the only tool that made it painless for me.

I stumped up my own cash for a pro license and I use it almost daily even now.

Re: Meld is a visual diff and merge tool targeted at developers

#116

Post by dataflow »

memsom wrote: post #115
dataflow wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually don't understand what people love about BC. The only thing I find it extremely useful for is the occasional files where inline diffs are practically mandatory, like CSVs. Other than that, I generally find it frustrating compared to TortoiseGitMerge, except perhaps for some very specific/unusual scenarios. In particular the line highlighting is annoying - instead of coloring the lines that were added vs. re…

I’ve been using BC since the early 2000’s, so probably more than 15 years. I know it backwards and forwards. If you set it up right, it is pretty powerful. It allows a lot of the stuff that other tools fail on to be overcome. Manual alignment is a dream. The rules based comparison is very nice. Ignoring unimportant differences removes pretty much all the white space differences. The ease of selecting arbitrary blocks…

Interesting. Have you tried TortoiseGitDiff? I'd be curious what you think of that in comparison if so.

Update: I just downloaded Meld. It literally takes ~half a second to change the cursor location when I click in a highlighted region, which is already making me dislike it. Is this normal?

Re: Meld is a visual diff and merge tool targeted at developers

#117

Post by dataflow »

larschdk wrote: post #87
dataflow wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually don't understand what people love about BC. The only thing I find it extremely useful for is the occasional files where inline diffs are practically mandatory, like CSVs. Other than that, I generally find it frustrating compared to TortoiseGitMerge, except perhaps for some very specific/unusual scenarios. In particular the line highlighting is annoying - instead of coloring the lines that were added vs. re…

The things that makes it borderline useless to you is actually one reason I like it so much. Makes it really easy to do code reviews and focus on what actually matters. Also, it was until somewhat recently the undisputed best 3-way merge tool. Meld gets close, but to me Meld's UI is sluggish and fuzzy (on Windows) while BC is snappy and sharp.

Maybe I need to try Meld at some point. Have you tried TortoiseGitDiff by any chance?

Re: Meld is a visual diff and merge tool targeted at developers

#118

Post by memsom »

crispyalmond wrote: post #42
diego_moita wrote: post #16

IMHO, Meld is the second best open source tool for doing this. On Windows, WinMerge[1] is a better alternative. Too bad is Windows only. For a non-FOSS and cross platform solution I recommend BeyondCompare (U$30.00)[2]. It replicates most of WinMerge UI. [1] https://winmerge.org/ [2] https://scootersoftware.com/

Do you think the pro version of BeyondCompare is worth it compared to the standard one?

Yes. They often have sales, and I picked up Pro for about the price of Standard a few years back. If you see a sale, get Pro. If you are not worried about the pro feature set, get standard.

The other thing is that the trial used to be very fair. I don’t know if they changed it, but it used to give you “days of usage” not contiguous days. I once used it for about 5 months because the 30 day trial only counted the days I actually used it and I saved using it for when I really needed it, and used WinMerge when I could instead.

Beyond Compare is a gem.

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