Presentation

JDiffPlugin is a visual diff and merge utility for jEdit.

It features:

• Diff overviews (local and global)

• Synchronized scrolling

• Ignore case option

• Ignore leading and trailing whitespace option

• Ignore amount of whitespace option

• Ignore all whitespace option

• Normal diff output

• Visual merging of differences between two files

Usage

The simplest method is to open the Dual Diff Dialog (Plugins -> JDiff -> Show dual diff dialog) and choose the files to compare.

But you can also:

1. Split your view in two (vertically)

2. Edit the buffers you want to compare:

   • the buffer on the left is the original

   • the buffer on the right is the revision

3. Activate JDiff: Plugins > JDiff> Dual Diff

Or if you have JDiff docked:

1. Open the dockable.
2. Click the 'Diff' button:

   

Figure 1 shows the result

Display

Once JDiff is activated as in Figure 1, you should see:

• Text Highlights

• A local overview (right of the original)

• A global overview (right of the revision)

• If you have activated the Diff dockable, you'll also see the merge controls and the line overview.

Color conventions

By default:

• Changed lines appear in yellow

• Deleted (from the original) lines appear in red

• Inserted (to the revision) lines appear in green

• Invalid lines appear as thin dark grey lines.

  • In the original, invalid lines indicate where a block was inserted in the revision.

  • In the revision, invalid lines indicate where a block was deleted in the original.

Local overview

The local overview shows how the visible changed/inserted/deleted blocks from the original and the revision relate to each other. Merging between files can be performed by clicking a right arrow in the local overview, which will select the corresponding text from the original and replace the related text in the revision. The blocks to be merged are indicated by vertical black bars so it is obvious which code is moving. Clicking a left arrow in the local overview will select the corresponding text block from the revision and replace the related text in the original. Note that the code moves are by block, not by line, so the entire diff will be moved.

Global overview

The global overview should help you estimate how the two edited buffers differ. It also displays two cursors which indicate the visible parts of the two buffers. Clicking within the global overview will move the view to the corresponding part of the file.

Line overview

The line overview shows character-by-character differences between the current cursor lines within a diff block. This makes it easy to see the difference of even a single character change between the left and right lines. This overview only shows one line at a time of the diff block, move the cursor within the block to see the individual line differences for each line.

Merge controls

The merge control has 8 buttons. From left to right in horizontal mode:

1.   Start a diff.
2.   Unsplit the view, which ends the diff session.
3.   Move to next diff.
4.   Move current diff to right. This replaces the diff block on the right with the text from the left diff block.
5.   Move current diff to left. This replaces the diff block on the left with the text from the right diff block.
6.   Move to previous diff.
7.   Swap text areas, that is, put the file that was on the left on the right, and put the file that was on the right on the left.
8.   Refresh the diff.

The merge controls can also be displayed vertically or in a compact form (as shown in the image above), and with or without the line overview. The vertical display is convenient for the left or right docking areas. The horizontal layout works well in the top or bottom docking areas. The compact layout uses less vertical space in the top or bottom docking areas when the line overview is also displayed.

Other commands

These commands are available on the plugin menu:

• Refresh: refreshes the diff display

• Go to previous/next difference

• Ignore case: toggles the "Ignore case" option for the current diff

• Ignore leading and trailing whitespace: toggles the "Ignore leading and trailing whitespace" option for the current diff

• Ignore amount of whitespace: toggles the "Ignore amount of whitespace" option for the current diff

• Ignore all whitespace: toggles the "Ignore all whitespace" option for the current diff

• Normal Diff Output: generates a diff file using the normal method

Options

These settings can be made in the JDiff options panel, Plugins -> Plugin Options... -> JDiff Plugin

Line comparison options

You can configure how JDiff compares lines by default. JDiff can:

• Ignore case: upper-cased lines are compared.

• Ignore leading and trailing whitespace: lines are compared as if leading and trailing whitespaces were removed.

• Ignore amount of whitespace: lines are compared as if any

  • leading and trailing whitespaces were removed

  • sequence of whitespaces were replaced by one single space.

• Ignore all whitespace: lines are compared as if:

  • any leading, trailing and inner whitespaces were removed

Control layout

Automatically display dockable on diff: When starting a new diff from the plugin menu, if on, this setting will cause the diff dockable to be displayed immediately so the merge controls are quickly accessible.

Show line diffs in dockable: Toggles display of the line diff in the dockable. Turning this off will reduce the amount of screen space the dockable occupies.

Merge control layout

• Horizontal: default, merge control buttons in a single horizontal line. Best used docked at top or bottom.
• Vertical: merge controls in a single vertical line. Best used docked at the left or right. Not a good choice when the line overview is also on.
• Compact: merge controls in 2 columns of 4 buttons. Occupies smallest amount of screen space when used with the line overview.

Overview colors

You can configure the colors of:

• Changed lines

• Deleted lines

• Inserted lines

• Invalid lines

• Left cursor in the global overview

• Right cursor in the global overview

Highlight colors

You can configure the colors of:

• Changed lines

• Deleted lines

• Inserted lines

• Invalid lines

License

Feedback

History

• Version 1.8. Bug fixes, added "Diff" and "Refresh" buttons to merge controls, major code refactoring to clean up the various painting issues.

• Version 1.7. Added a dockable to display line diff and merge controls. Added merge functionality, added mouse listener to global overview. (Dale Anson)

• Version 1.5.2. Fixes to ignore whitespace options (1522563 - aconnor78)

• Version 1.5, updated to work with jEdit 4.3pre3+

• Version 1.4. Updated to work with jEdit v4.2+, including edits for new JEditTextArea handling and new plugin API.

• Version 1.3.2. Last pre-jEdit v4.2 version of plugin by Andr??.

Credits