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Hi,

I need a tool to compare java source files - does any one know of any?

It would be prefered if it does actually compare the code and not be based
on just plain text - hope you know what i mean.

Thanks,
Alan.

alan jeeves wrote:
> I need a tool to compare java source files - does any one know of any?
>
> It would be prefered if it does actually compare the code and not be based
> on just plain text - hope you know what i mean.

What kind of "comparison" do you want? Syntactical identity? In that case,
a combination of a code formatter and a simple diff should do fine.

If you meant semantical identity, I don't think that's feasible.

I'm managing to do it with a simple text comparsion app,

but thanks


"Michael Borgwardt" <> wrote in message
news:c24lr5$1p0s87$...
> alan jeeves wrote:
> > I need a tool to compare java source files - does any one know of any?
> >
> > It would be prefered if it does actually compare the code and not be
based
> > on just plain text - hope you know what i mean.
>
> What kind of "comparison" do you want? Syntactical identity? In that case,
> a combination of a code formatter and a simple diff should do fine.
>
> If you meant semantical identity, I don't think that's feasible.
>

alan jeeves wrote:

> I'm managing to do it with a simple text comparsion app,

That's what I meant with "simple diff". Combining it with a code
formatter would offer the advantage of ignoring differences in
formatting and whitespace. Beyond that, I don't see how any
big improvement could be made.

"alan jeeves" <> wrote in message
news:c24l2k$lhe$...
> I need a tool to compare java source files - does any one know of any?

Microsoft's WinDiff.exe:
http://www.tburke.net/info/suptools/topics/windiff.htm
which came with Visual J++ 6.0 and various Windows support and resource
kits, does such a comparison. If it is already on your computer it is worth
trying.

alan jeeves wrote:
> I need a tool to compare java source files - does any one know of any?

Yes, I wrote a Unix diff clone in Java, just for fun. Of course, the
real diff programs will do just fine, too.

> It would be prefered if it does actually compare the code and not be based
> on just plain text

Nop. And definitely not my little diff (it can ignore whitespace, but
that's it).

If you can't find anything, I would suggest some pre-processing. Remove
comments, all whitespace, etc.. Than run it through any diff command of
your choice.

/Thomas

alan jeeves wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I need a tool to compare java source files - does any one know of any?
>
> It would be prefered if it does actually compare the code and not be based
> on just plain text - hope you know what i mean.

I usually use either tkdiff (with tkcvs) or Eclipse. The latter has a
very niced styled diff viewer with sliding comparison areas like Sun's
CM tool used to.

Thomas Weidenfeller wrote:
> Nop. And definitely not my little diff (it can ignore whitespace, but
> that's it).
>
> If you can't find anything, I would suggest some pre-processing. Remove
> comments, all whitespace, etc.. Than run it through any diff command of
> your choice.


Try tkdiff (grab tkcvs) and give it the option to ignore whitespace
(might be in the gui) -b

And sometimes you want --ignore-all-space.

Jon A. Cruz wrote:
> Try tkdiff (grab tkcvs) and give it the option to ignore whitespace
> (might be in the gui) -b
>
> And sometimes you want --ignore-all-space.

Space "folding" and completely ignoring spaces is implemented in my
little diff (and all Unix diff versions I am aware of since Unix Version
7). So any diff should be a good start. However, I assumed that this is
not enough for the OP. For me it sounded he also wants to ignore
comments and line breaks (anything ignored by the compiler, too). I
don't know any tool which does this.

/Thomas

Thought you might like to take a look here

http://keithdevens.com/downloads/

"alan jeeves" <> wrote in message news:<c24l2k$lhe$>...
> Hi,
>
> I need a tool to compare java source files - does any one know of any?
>
> It would be prefered if it does actually compare the code and not be based
> on just plain text - hope you know what i mean.
>
> Thanks,
> Alan.