Analyze Code File Changes Visually And Merge Them With KDiff3
Earlier, we have covered two file and folder differencing and merging tools, namely, WinMerge and Diffuse. Both tools provide a lot of different ways to let user easily compare, find differences and then merge files and folders. The latter, however, is better for comparing and merging programming language codes. kDiff3 is another useful utility which belongs to the same category whose workability is based on differentiating changes visually in line-by-line structure. With kDiff3, you can easily open multiple files for comparison purposes, edit content of multiple files on the fly or simply let it merge the changes into single file without putting too much effort. The application is intended to do enormous comparisons among specified text files whilst directories can also be compared and merged easily.
The application offers a simple UI with an easy usage. Just launch the application to specify files or folders (not more than 3) which you want to compare and merge. After files are selected, you can also swap them for changing arrangement. You can enable Merge option (which is optional) to combine the files’ content.
When comparison-related options are all set, click OK to view the changes. It opens each file in separate window, where same color indicate no changes and conversely is the case with different colors. Aside from colors in sidebars of each file’s windows, you will also see changed text highlighted in comparison with other included files.
Under Merge menu, you will find multitude of ways in which files can be merged together. Unlike previously covered tools, it has an ability to show and resolve the merge-related issues without requiring any input from user’s end.
Color settings along with other application behaviors can be changed from Configuration window, where you can change default font, color combinations for each comparison parameter, editor related settings, and tweak with default comparisons and merge parameters.
In comparison with other aforementioned tools, it offers far better control over comparing and merging text files, we reckon you to give it a try for comparing source code files. It works on Windows XP/Vista/7. Testing was done successfully on Windows 7 x64 system.
