The Meld Graphical Comparison Tool [LWN.net]

Version 0.9.0b of Meld has just been released. Meld is a tool that gives a graphical comparison between different files, directories, and CVS contents.

Meld is a GNOME 2 visual diff and merge tool. It integrates especially well with CVS. The diff viewer lets you edit files in place (diffs update dynamically), and a middle column shows detailed changes and allows merges. The margins show location of changes for easy navigation, and it also features a tabbed interface that allows you to open many diffs at once.

[Meld]

Take a look at the Meld Screenshots page to see the tool in action. The page also offers more in-depth descriptions of the tool's different sections. Meld looks like a very useful tool for tracking down subtle differences in code and source trees. The output is much more human readable than that of the diff utility; it will certainly remind some readers of the emacs "ediff" tool.

Recent changes include user editable regex filters, new preferences, and compatibility with Python 2.3. The change history indicates a need for help with i18n translations. User feedback has been requested by the developer.

Meld is available for download here, see the installation instructions to get it running. Meld packages are available for several popular Linux distributions.

kdiff3, the KDE diff and merge

Posted Oct 20, 2003 20:28 UTC (Mon) by ddaa (guest, #5338) [Link]

I have tried several GUI diff tools (emacs ediff, xdiff, xxdiff, meld) and eventually settled with kdiff3, a KDE-style diff and merge tool with basically the same features.

Though it is not yet a fully integrated KDE application, it has a consistent user interface and nice features to improve the user experience:

no-nonsence interface
differences inside a line
alternative diff algorthim (optimized for C/C++)
convenient key bindings

One point where it is much better than ediff is when diffing whole directories.

Well... maybe various other tools have most or all of the functionality of kdiff3, but this is the one I use.

The Meld Graphical Comparison Tool

Posted Oct 22, 2003 17:12 UTC (Wed) by jmason (guest, #13586) [Link]

BTW, it looks like Meld's graphical "follow the changes" line-drawing area in the middle, is strongly influenced by MacOS X' FileMerge tool: screenshot. Worth noting for those who didn't know that -- I didn't ;)