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<html><head><title>Chapter 1. Introduction</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="help:/common/tde-default.css" type="text/css"><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.67.2"><meta name="keywords" content="KDE, kdeextragear, kdiff3, diff, merge, CVS, triplediff, compare, files, directories, version control, three-way-merge, in-line-differences, synchronise, kpart, tdeio, networktransparent, editor, white space, comments"><link rel="start" href="index.html" title="The KDiff3 Handbook"><link rel="up" href="index.html" title="The KDiff3 Handbook"><link rel="prev" href="index.html" title="The KDiff3 Handbook"><link rel="next" href="screenshots.html" title="Screenshots and Features"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"><meta name="GENERATOR" content="KDE XSL Stylesheet V1.13 using libxslt"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div style="background-image: url(help:/common/top-middle.png); width: 100%; height: 131px;"><div style="position: absolute; right: 0px;"><img src="help:/common/top-right-konqueror.png" style="margin: 0px" alt=""></div><div style="position: absolute; top: 25px; right: 100px; text-align: right; font-size: xx-large; font-weight: bold; text-shadow: #fff 0px 0px 5px; color: #444">Introduction</div></div><div style="margin-top: 20px; background-color: #white; color: black; margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px;"><div style="position: absolute; left: 20px;"><a accesskey="p" href="index.html">Prev</a></div><div style="position: absolute; right: 20px;"><a accesskey="n" href="screenshots.html">Next</a></div><div class="navCenter"> </div></div><div class="chapter" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a name="introduction"></a>Chapter 1. Introduction</h2></div></div></div><div class="sect1" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="why"></a>Yet Another Diff Frontend?</h2></div></div></div><p>
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Several graphical diff tools exist. Why choose <span class="application">KDiff3</span>? Let me say, why I wrote it.
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</p><p>
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<span class="application">KDiff3</span> started because I had to do a difficult merge. Merging is necessary when several
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people work on the same files in a project. A merge can be somewhat automated, when the
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merge-tool not only has the new modified files (called "branches"), but also the original file
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(called "base"). The merge tool will automatically choose any modification that was only
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done in one branch. When several contributors change the same lines, then the merge tool
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detects a conflict which must be solved manually.
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</p><p>
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The merge then was difficult because one contributor had changed many things and corrected
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the indentation in many places. Another contributor also had changed much text in the same file,
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which resulted in several merge conflicts.
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</p><p>
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The tool I used then, only showed the changed lines, but not what had changed within these
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lines. And there was no information about where only the indentation was changed. The merge
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was a little nightmare.
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</p><p>
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So this was the start. The first version could show differences within a line and showed white space differences.
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Later many other features were added to increase the usefulness.
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</p><p>
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For example if you want to compare some text quickly, then you can copy it to the clipboard and
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paste it into either diff window.
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</p><p>
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A feature that required a big effort was the directory comparison and merge facility, which turned
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the program almost into a full file browser.
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</p><p>
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I hope <span class="application">KDiff3</span> works for you too. Have fun!
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</p><p>
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Joachim Eibl (2003)
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</p></div></div><div style="background-color: #white; color: black; margin-top: 20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px;"><div style="position: absolute; left: 20px;"><a accesskey="p" href="index.html">Prev</a></div><div style="position: absolute; right: 20px;"><a accesskey="n" href="screenshots.html">Next</a></div><div align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></div></div><div style="background-color: #white; color: black; margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px;"><div class="navLeft">The <span class="application">KDiff3</span> Handbook </div><div class="navRight"> Screenshots and Features</div><div class="navCenter"><a accesskey="u" href="index.html">Up</a></div></div><br><br><div class="bannerBottom" style="background-image: url(help:/common/bottom-middle.png); background-repeat: x-repeat; width: 100%; height: 100px; bottom:0px;"><div class="BannerBottomRight"><img src="help:/common/bottom-right.png" style="margin: 0px" alt=""></div><div class="bannerBottomLeft"><img src="help:/common/bottom-left.png" style="margin: 0px;" alt=""></div><div id="comments" style="position:relative; top: 5px; left: 1em; height:85px; width: 50%; color: #cfe1f6"><p>Would you like to make a comment or contribute an update to this page?<br>
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Send feedback to the <a href="mailto:kde-docs@kdemail.net" style="background:transparent; color:#cfe1f6; text-decoration: underline;">KDE Docs Team</a></p></div></div></body></html>
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