bug\feature request - red highlighting of changed file parts

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Owyn
Posts: 11
Joined: 11 Aug 2014 22:11

bug\feature request - red highlighting of changed file parts

Post by Owyn »

now when you paste instert (ctrl+b) it highlightes in red whole everything you inserted even if out of 10 inserted bytes just one changed from how it was

It would be really handy to see just changed parts of file in red excluding original bytes which stayed the same.
Maël
Site Admin
Posts: 1455
Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Re: bug\feature request - red highlighting of changed file p

Post by Maël »

The major reason for this is performance. In "pathological" cases this can increase the necessary size to at least double the size of the inserted block, but also it requires quite more complexity when handling presentation to keep it efficient.

What it does is really only show what write or insert operations you performed on the file, not really what effective changes that caused (this would be a diff view going into more than just block level granularity, or if you think of text compare, going into line diff details instead of just comparing entire lines).

This changed parts view is limited in general, as for example deletions will not be highlighted either. So maybe using file compare would be more effective for this detailed level of information.
Last edited by Maël on 18 Aug 2014 22:00, edited 2 times in total.
Owyn
Posts: 11
Joined: 11 Aug 2014 22:11

Re: bug\feature request - red highlighting of changed file p

Post by Owyn »

I don't want to compare anything, look:

if in file there is a block of following text:

Code: Select all

1234567
and you manually write

Code: Select all

1224566
over it it would highlight in red just two numbers - 2 and 6, but if you use paste with overwrite (no size change) with exactly same

Code: Select all

1224566
- it would highlight everything in red and not just 2 and 6
Maël
Site Admin
Posts: 1455
Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Re: bug\feature request - red highlighting of changed file p

Post by Maël »

I understood you well.

What I am saying is that you can insert huge blocks, and in this case the level of detail you want is causing serious performance issues.
The alternative of having it work on small blocks (where it's relatively easy to do) but not big blocks would be inconsistent.

So if you really need that information, I think a general compare feature would be more useful, as there the performance hit is to be expected. For regular viewing and editing, a lagging or some progress bar is not really what you want.
Owyn
Posts: 11
Joined: 11 Aug 2014 22:11

Re: bug\feature request - red highlighting of changed file p

Post by Owyn »

Maël wrote:I understood you well.

What I am saying is that you can insert huge blocks, and in this case the level of detail you want is causing serious performance issues.
The alternative of having it work on small blocks (where it's relatively easy to do) but not big blocks would be inconsistent.

So if you really need that information, I think a general compare feature would be more useful, as there the performance hit is to be expected. For regular viewing and editing, a lagging or some progress bar is not really what you want.
Can't this be done asynchroniously in a separate thread without blocking use of the program for big blocks?

but doing it for big blocks (above few megabytes probably) makes little sense, I agree.
Maël
Site Admin
Posts: 1455
Joined: 12 Mar 2005 14:15

Re: bug\feature request - red highlighting of changed file p

Post by Maël »

It's just more complexity than I want to invest in such a little feature. An extended compare feature is a possibility, though.
Owyn
Posts: 11
Joined: 11 Aug 2014 22:11

Re: bug\feature request - red highlighting of changed file p

Post by Owyn »

Maël wrote:It's just more complexity than I want to invest in such a little feature. An extended compare feature is a possibility, though.
I just noticed that If I manually type:

02 02 02
above
01 02 03

then first 02 and last 02 are highlighted red (as changed) but middle 02 stays white as unchanged

- that's what I'm asking for ,
like if instead I paste insert

02 02 02
above
01 02 03

then I get all three bytes shown red as changed

can't you just use "manual typing" checking over pasting?
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