Groups > linux.debian.user > #256576 > unrolled thread

Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

Started by	"Susmita/Rajib" <bkpsusmitaa@gmail.com>
First post	2023-03-31 18:40 +0200
Last post	2023-04-01 14:20 +0200
Articles	10 on this page of 50 — 12 participants

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#256599 — Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

From	davidson <davidson@freevolt.org>
Date	2023-04-01 13:00 +0200
Subject	Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?
Message-ID	<GfH7H-gAH0-3@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to	#256596

On Sat, 1 Apr 2023 Susmita/Rajib wrote:
> [   ...   ]
> Try
>
> icdiff file1 file2 | less -R
>
> and report back.
> [   ...   ]
>
> Yes, it worked. Worked better than the code-line with " | more".
> Mouse-scrolling working both ways. So really thank you.
>
> My need should have been fulfilled so far as the purpose of the
> present thread is concerned. But I have another immediately related
> query: how could I capture the output from the code-line with all
> its colours to a file on the HDD?

The "colors" are control sequences, instructions for terminal
emulators conforming to a standard. Terminals understand them to mean
"now paint glyphs red" or "now make them bold" or "now stop doing all
that fancy stuff" etc.

> Then repeated invoking the line won't be required.  "> file.txt"
> drops all colours.

You do not tell us what application you are using to view the file
contents. If it is not a terminal application, it might well fail to
independently implement for your delightful spectation the ECMA-48 set
graphics control sequences.

Applications that transparently pass such sequences to a terminal
permit it to paint the glyphs as the control sequences direct.

  $ icdiff file1 file2 > pretty_diff
  $ less -R pretty_diff # Still pretty?

-- 
Believe you do in the church, not in front of the computer, when
we see the output we can conclude ourself. -- deloptes

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#256601 — Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

From	davidson <davidson@freevolt.org>
Date	2023-04-01 13:10 +0200
Subject	Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?
Message-ID	<GfHhn-gAZW-7@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to	#256599

On Sat, 1 Apr 2023 davidson wrote:
> The "colors" are control sequences, instructions for terminal
> emulators conforming to a standard. Terminals understand them to mean
> "now paint glyphs red" or "now make them bold" or "now stop doing all
> that fancy stuff" etc.

Erm, what I meant to say is that the instructions are for conforming
terminals.

And a terminal *emulator* knows what they mean, because it is an
emulator of terminals.

-- 
Hackers are free people. They are like artists. If they are in a good
mood, they get up in the morning and begin painting their pictures.
-- Vladimir Putin

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#256589 — Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

From	<tomas@tuxteam.de>
Date	2023-04-01 08:00 +0200
Subject	Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?
Message-ID	<GfCrn-gxKU-1@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to	#256586

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On Sat, Apr 01, 2023 at 09:07:30AM +0530, Susmita/Rajib wrote:

[...]

> The above limitations directs me to suggest to Debian Teams across all
> Mailing Lists and the Board to have GPT4 added to extend
> functionalities of GNU-Linux systems [...]

GPT is not free software, so it can't be included in Debian.

Besides, it's being used in very free-software unfriendly ways, but this
is a whole different story.

Cheers
-- 
t

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#256593 — Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

From	davidson <davidson@freevolt.org>
Date	2023-04-01 09:40 +0200
Subject	Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?
Message-ID	<GfE09-gyNm-7@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to	#256586

On Sat, 1 Apr 2023 Susmita/Rajib wrote:
> My illustrious team leaders and senior debian-user list-members,
[trimmed: admirably comprehensive description of OPs use-case]
> Diff helps in comparing the two draft editions.

It does indeed do what it was designed to do.

> Dear Mr. l0f4r0:
> that pointer, https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/537418/how-to-make-text-wrap-with-diff-y;
> indeed helped and led me to icdiff which is
> wonderful. Unfortunately, for two very large text files, the
> terminal truncates the beginning and just highlights the end
> sections of the files.

As you have discovered, if you do not pipe output to a pager, it will
not be paged.

> Icdiff didn't work with " | less".

"Didn't work." A remarkably inarticulate non-description, and
uncharacteristic of our honored declaimant.

Try

  icdiff file1 file2 | less -R

and report back.

> But it sure worked with " | more".
>
> Similarly, with diff -y <(fold -s -w72 file1) <(fold -s -w72 file2) -W
> 200, the beginning is truncated and only the end is displayed. And
> yes, it works with " | more". But it is bland.

"Bland" is not a bug. If "spicy" is a requirement for your
professional tools, my sympathy dwindles to a trickle.

> Without colours differences can't be spotted so easily.

One gets the feeling that you find colors very helpful. Sounds like a
requirement to me. Say so prominently:

"I require differences to be highlighted in vibrant color."

[trimmed: copious acknowledgments]
> Bottom line is: icdiff is wonderful, but from a terminal it becomes
> limited. Can;t a good programmer have icdiff ported to GUI?

In its present form its output can be piped to other utilities, such
as the pagers more, less, and most.

This is compositionality, which multiplies the usefulness of a
tool. Toolmakers appreciate this, as do intelligent tool users.

> It would be the best solution available for me, and for people like
> me.
[rest trimmed]

If you are in the business of producing and processing text, it might
be more productive for you to invest more time in learning how to take
professional advantage of unix text-processing tools, and to spend
less time trying to tell the rare developer that may peruse
debian-user what they ought to develop for you.

-- 
Hackers are free people. They are like artists. If they are in a good
mood, they get up in the morning and begin painting their pictures.
-- Vladimir Putin

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#256600

From	Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com>
Date	2023-04-01 13:10 +0200
Message-ID	<GfHhn-gAZW-3@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to	#256586

On 01/04/2023 14:59, DdB wrote:
> In fact, unfortunately, i did not understand the necessity to wrap the
> output, as i am happily using the synchronised scrollbar (inside meld)
> in such cases, but ofc, that may not fit your use case.

If it is prose text formatted as a line per paragraph then wrapped lines 
become a must have feature. I do not use such approach, but sometimes I 
use :wrap command in vimdiff. I tried meld several years ago, but I 
found no reason to use it instead of vim. Out of curiosity I have tried 
"meld wrap line" in a search engine and got a couple of stackoverflow 
questions. Answers recommend Meld → Preferences → Editor → Enable text 
wrapping.

I believe that an editor is suited much better than a viewer for 
reviewing of edited version of text. Certainly changes should be tracked 
in a version control system.

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#256603 — Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

From	rhkramer@gmail.com
Date	2023-04-01 15:10 +0200
Subject	Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?
Message-ID	<GfJ9v-gCb5-1@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to	#256586

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On Friday, March 31, 2023 11:37:30 PM Susmita/Rajib wrote:
> Suppose I wrote a book book1.txt. I then send it to an editor who
> corrects the initial mistakes, altering some lines while doing so,
> renaming to another file book2.txt.
> 
> When I receive the editor's correction, I don't accept them
> straightaway, but based on his suggestions I change my book1 and edit
> and alter it further. Diff helps in comparing the two draft editions.
> 
> This one cycle could again be repeated.

> I checked wdiff and also dwdiff. But they are very bland
> and very complicated to handle as dwdiff uses a lot of braces with +
> and - signs, but doesn't present the two files side by side for
> intuitive/visual comparison.

Thanks for the reply!

I don't remember the name of the utility that I used to use in the Microsoft 
world, but it was very nice in showing changes within lines or paragraphs, 
using underline and crossout (wrong name).  

Just to create an example, suppose I changed the previious paragraph to say "I 
never used in Linux:" then that utility would show something like what I show 
below.

Aside: I'm not sure I can show crossout in an email, so will precede and end 
it with "-".

The utility also showed a vertical line at the beginning of either a line or 
paragraph that had changed.

I don't remember the name of the utility that I used to use in the Microsoft 
world, but it was very nice in showing changes within lines or paragraphs, 
using underline and crossout (wrong name).  

| I don't remember the name of the utility that I *never used in Linux:* -used 
to use in the Microsoft world-, but it was very nice in showing changes within 
lines or paragraphs, using underline and crossout (wrong name).  

I found that very useful for generally text based documents like specifications 
and contracts.

It did have trouble "resynchronizing" -- I mean, for example, if a section of 
text was not changed but moved a fair distance (for some definition of "fair") 
it often showed that as a deletion of the text from the original location and 
insertion of the (unchaged) text in a new location (which wasn't necessarily 
all bad).

IIRC, there was another problem that I characterized as trouble with 
resynchronizing, but, atm, I can't recall any details.

When I moved to Linux, I looked for a similar utility, and the closest I could 
find (at the time -- possibly 20 years ago) was wdiff.

I hope you find wnat you're looking for (or maybe even something better ;-)

-- 
rhk 

(sig revised 20230312 -- modified first paragraph, some other irrelevant 
wordsmithing)

| No entity has permission to use this email to train an AI.

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#256604 — Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

From	rhkramer@gmail.com
Date	2023-04-01 15:30 +0200
Subject	Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?
Message-ID	<GfJsR-gChU-3@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to	#256603

On Saturday, April 01, 2023 09:07:47 AM rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:
> On Friday, March 31, 2023 11:37:30 PM Susmita/Rajib wrote:
> I don't remember the name of the utility that I used to use in the
> Microsoft world, but it was very nice in showing changes within lines or
> paragraphs, using underline and crossout (wrong name).

Ahh, some things are coming back to me (it is interesting getting old -- among 
other things, I'm remembering things from long ago that I had forgotten -- I 
sort of wonder if that is a slow motion version of my life flashing before my 
eyes which might mean I'm in deep trouble ;-)

Anyway, I now remember that there were at least two ways that I found to do 
that in the Microsoft world -- one was a standalone utility, which name I 
still don't remember, but the other was a feature built into Microsoft Word 
(at least in the versions I used 20 to 30 years ago).

I don't know if [Libre | Open] Office has a similar feature.

Far aside: I am remembering that I once wrote a literate program (ala Knuth) 
in Microsoft Word (and it worked) -- I could (easily compile it from the Word 
document, or view it with or without the "literacy".  Unfortunately, the 
client company went out of business before the program was put in service.  
(Wouldn't you be worried if you remembered something like that ;-)

-- 
rhk 

(sig revised 20230312 -- modified first paragraph, some other irrelevant 
wordsmithing)

| No entity has permission to use this email to train an AI.

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#256605 — Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

From	debian-user@howorth.org.uk
Date	2023-04-01 16:30 +0200
Subject	Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?
Message-ID	<GfKoV-gCVt-5@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to	#256603

rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:
> On Friday, March 31, 2023 11:37:30 PM Susmita/Rajib wrote:
> > Suppose I wrote a book book1.txt. I then send it to an editor who
> > corrects the initial mistakes, altering some lines while doing so,
> > renaming to another file book2.txt.
> > 
> > When I receive the editor's correction, I don't accept them
> > straightaway, but based on his suggestions I change my book1 and
> > edit and alter it further. Diff helps in comparing the two draft
> > editions.
> > 
> > This one cycle could again be repeated.  
> 
> > I checked wdiff and also dwdiff. But they are very bland
> > and very complicated to handle as dwdiff uses a lot of braces with +
> > and - signs, but doesn't present the two files side by side for
> > intuitive/visual comparison.  
> 
> Thanks for the reply!
> 
> I don't remember the name of the utility that I used to use in the
> Microsoft world, but it was very nice in showing changes within lines
> or paragraphs, using underline and crossout (wrong name).  
> 
> Just to create an example, suppose I changed the previious paragraph
> to say "I never used in Linux:" then that utility would show
> something like what I show below.
> 
> Aside: I'm not sure I can show crossout in an email, so will precede
> and end it with "-".
> 
> The utility also showed a vertical line at the beginning of either a
> line or paragraph that had changed.
> 
> I don't remember the name of the utility that I used to use in the
> Microsoft world, but it was very nice in showing changes within lines
> or paragraphs, using underline and crossout (wrong name).  
> 
> 
> | I don't remember the name of the utility that I *never used in
> Linux:* -used to use in the Microsoft world-, but it was very nice in
> showing changes within lines or paragraphs, using underline and
> crossout (wrong name).  

It sounds like you're describing the way Microsoft Word displays
differences between versions. I believe LibreOffice will do something
very much the same.

> I found that very useful for generally text based documents like
> specifications and contracts.
> 
> It did have trouble "resynchronizing" -- I mean, for example, if a
> section of text was not changed but moved a fair distance (for some
> definition of "fair") it often showed that as a deletion of the text
> from the original location and insertion of the (unchaged) text in a
> new location (which wasn't necessarily all bad).
> 
> IIRC, there was another problem that I characterized as trouble with 
> resynchronizing, but, atm, I can't recall any details.
> 
> When I moved to Linux, I looked for a similar utility, and the
> closest I could find (at the time -- possibly 20 years ago) was wdiff.
> 
> I hope you find wnat you're looking for (or maybe even something
> better ;-)
>

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#256606 — Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

From	rhkramer@gmail.com
Date	2023-04-01 19:10 +0200
Subject	Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?
Message-ID	<GfMTL-gExZ-3@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to	#256605

On Saturday, April 01, 2023 10:22:24 AM debian-user@howorth.org.uk wrote:
> rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:
> > I don't remember the name of the utility that I used to use in the
> > Microsoft world, but it was very nice in showing changes within lines
> > or paragraphs, using underline and crossout (wrong name).

> It sounds like you're describing the way Microsoft Word displays
> differences between versions. 

Yes, exactly.  (But there was also a non-Microsoft utility that did (just 
about) the same thing.)

> I believe LibreOffice will do something
> very much the same.

Good to know, I'll have to try that some time.  (I do most of my writing in an 
editor these days.)

-- 
rhk 

(sig revised 20230312 -- modified first paragraph, some other irrelevant 
wordsmithing)

| No entity has permission to use this email to train an AI.

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#256602 — Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

From	Nate Bargmann <n0nb@n0nb.us>
Date	2023-04-01 14:20 +0200
Subject	Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?
Message-ID	<GfIn8-gBEA-1@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to	#256576

[Multipart message — attachments visible in raw view] — view raw

I prefer vimdiff.

- Nate

-- 
"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all
possible worlds.  The pessimist fears this is true."
Web: https://www.n0nb.us
Projects: https://github.com/N0NB
GPG fingerprint: 82D6 4F6B 0E67 CD41 F689 BBA6 FB2C 5130 D55A 8819

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Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

Contents

#256599 — Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

#256601 — Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

#256589 — Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

#256593 — Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

#256600

#256603 — Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

#256604 — Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

#256605 — Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

#256606 — Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?

#256602 — Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?