[Patches] [ python-Patches-914575 ] difflib side by side diff support, diff.py s/b/s HTML option

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Patches item #914575, was opened at 2004-03-11 18:50
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by jimjjewett
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Category: Modules
Group: Python 2.4
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 6
Submitted By: Dan Gass (dmgass)
Assigned to: Raymond Hettinger (rhettinger)
Summary: difflib side by side diff support, diff.py s/b/s HTML option

Initial Comment:
lib/difflib.py:

Added support for generating side by side differences.  
Intended to be used for generating HTML pages but is 
generic where it can be used for other types of markup.

tools/scripts/diff.py:

Added -m option to use above patch to generate an 
HTML page of side by side differences between two 
files.  The existing -c option when used with the new -m 
option controls whether contextual differences are 
shown or whether the entire file is displayed (number of 
context lines is controlled by existing -l option).

NOTES:
(1) Textual context diffs were included as requested.  In 
addition, full and contextual HTML side by side 
differences (that this patch generated) are also included 
to assist in analyzing the differences and showing an 
example.

(2) If this functionality is worthy of inclusion in the 
standard python distribution, I am willing to provide more 
documentation or make modifications to change the 
interface or make improvements.

(3) When using Internet Explorer some font sizes seem 
to skew things a bit.  Generally I've found the "smallest" 
to work best.  If someone knows why, I'd be interested 
in making any necessary adjustments in the generated 
HTML.


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Comment By: Jim Jewett (jimjjewett)
Date: 2004-06-11 10:35

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Thank you; I have often wished for side-by-side, but not quite 
badly enough to write it.

That said, I would recommend some tweaks to the formatting.

"font" is deprecated; "span" would be better. 

On my display, the "next" lines don't always seem to be 
counted (except the first one), so that the anchors column is 
not lined up with the others.  (This would also be fixed by the 
separate rows suggestion.)

Ideally, the line numbers would be in a separate column from 
the code, to make cut'n'paste easier.  (Then you could replace 
font.num (or span.num) with td.linenum.)

Ideally, each change group should be a separate row in the 
table.  (I realize that this probably means a two-layer iterator, 
so that the line breaks and blank lines can be inserted 
correctly in the code columns.)


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Comment By: Dan Gass (dmgass)
Date: 2004-04-29 00:30

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Also, I will need to submit the fix for making it behave nice 
when there are no differences!!

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Comment By: Dan Gass (dmgass)
Date: 2004-04-09 09:30

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In the time since submission I've found that the interface to 
the chgFmt and lineFmt functions (arguments of mdiff) should 
include both the line number and an indication of side 
(from/to).  The use for it I've found is for dropping anchors 
into the generated markup that it can be hyperlinked from 
elsewhere.

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