Another way to describe it

[xinelo]

Humm, it could be seen like that, or almost, it would rather be: "to select the pairs in the Diff Directories window and with one action to start a Diff Files window for ALL pairS of files from the selection".

I'd like to do what I do with the DiffFiles but I'd like to be able to select more than one file in the left and in the right drop-down lists, rather than only one. Meaning, select several files at once and run the diff only once for them all. And then I'd like to have all files open in the same view and be able to see the differences line by line of content just as I do when I'm comparing only one pair of files.

Another way to explain it. Imagine I want to compare old1.xml with new1.xml, old2.xml with new2.xml ... and oldn.xml with newn.xml, and I run a

$ cat old*.xml > all_old_files.xml
$ cat new*.xml > all_new_files.xml

and then I compare all_old_files.xml with all_new_files.xml files but I can still see the limits between each original file (i.e. I can still see to what original file the differences belong to) and if I edited one file in the diff view it is the original file what is edited. Is this clearer or still more confuse??

Do you not think this would be useful? It's very frequently that I must compare the contents of whole batches of files, not just two.

Best regards and thanks a lot for your replies!
Manuel

[sorin_ristache]

Hello,

If I understand correctly you want to see a set of files concatenated and displayed on the left panel that are compared with other set of files concatenated and displayed on the right panel in the same Diff Files window. I think the concatenation and presentation in the same window will confuse the users. I think it is easier comparing and editing one pair of files in the Diff Files window by a double click on each pair of files in the Diff Directories window. That is first you do a Diff Directories on two set of files and you double click on pairs of files in the result displayed in the Diff Directories window. Each double click compares the two files of that pair in a different Diff Files window. It seems more direct and clear for me. What do other users think?


Thank you for your suggestion,
Sorin

[xinelo]

Oops, I didn't mean to begin a new thread! I thought the title was for my new post, not for a new thread. The forum administrators, feel free to merge both threads.

Good, we understood each other

Sorin, your suggestion is not so usable (you still have one click per pair of files) but it's also quite suitable. The most important thing would be to spare the trouble of selecting a file on the left and a file on the right for each pair that you want to compare, and the way you propose serves that purpose too. Besides, it has the advantage that you can choose to see the internal differences of those files for which the != sign tells you that they are different.

Still, perhaps not for other users, but for me it would still be preferable to minimize the number of clicks and have in one go and get in one view only all the files that I want to compare. Perhaps it would be less confusing if some very outstanding lines mark clearly the boundaries between each pair of files (as the as the name of the next files).

Any of the two ways would be an improvement comparing to the way it is now.

In any case, my sincere and effusive congratulations to the developers and designers because I still think Oxygen is an amazingly good tool.

Thanks, Sorin.

Cheers, Manuel

[sorin_ristache]

Sorin, your suggestion is not so usable (you still have one click per pair of files)

Is that a problem? I think it is very clear: one click on a pair of files that are displayed in the Diff Directories window starts the compare action on the two files in the Diff Files window. You don't have to be careful at a separator between two concatenated files from the left panel of the Diff Directories window or between two files from the right panel when they are displayed in the Diff Files window.

but it's also quite suitable. The most important thing would be to spare the trouble of selecting a file on the left and a file on the right for each pair that you want to compare, and the way you propose serves that purpose too. Besides, it has the advantage that you can choose to see the internal differences of those files for which the != sign tells you that they are different.

We do understand each other

Still, perhaps not for other users, but for me it would still be preferable to minimize the number of clicks and have in one go and get in one view only all the files that I want to compare. Perhaps it would be less confusing if some very outstanding lines mark clearly the boundaries between each pair of files (as the as the name of the next files).

We may consider that for a future version.

Any of the two ways would be an improvement comparing to the way it is now.

The first way is already implemented: that is the behavior of the lines of pair of compared files in the Diff Directories window.

In any case, my sincere and effusive congratulations to the developers and designers because I still think Oxygen is an amazingly good tool.

Thank you,
Sorin