Compare 3 Files/Folders

[Jayshua83]

Is it possible to Compare 3 files or folders with WinMerge2011 or is that only possible in the Mainline build of WinMerge?

If it is possible how?

If not would you consider adding it?

[datadiode]

3-way compare is not supported in WinMerge2011, and I have no plans to add it.

[Jayshua83]

I see that you are on both WinMerge and WinMerge2011 repos and projects.

Could I ask you to list a quick rundown of the differences? I have been using 2011 for quite a while. But I'd have to use Kdiff for 3way until I just noticed WinMerge does it too. What other notable differences are there? Have no idea which one I should/want to be using! lol

[datadiode]

Ok let's start a list of differences as they come to mind:

2011

• doesn't support 3-way
• doesn't have a modeless Open dialog
• doesn't have a modeless folder compare progress pane which lets you do stuff in the folder compare view while comparison is still in progress
• retains the old Version Control feature which was eliminated from WinMerge, and rather adds to it by also supporting TFS
• 's JavaScript syntax highlighter recognizes regular expression literals and template strings
• takes some effort to support more flavors of server-side scripted HTML
• supports early-applied line filters (actually not very different from http://winmergex.sourceforge.net/LineTransforms.htm)
• allows file/directory filters to combine both inclusion and exclusion rules (https://superuser.com/questions/943879)
• has a trivialized plugin architecture which does not plug into folder compare to avoid complexity

[albertony]

2011:

• Has a built-in portable mode, where settings are stored in local file instead of registry! This was the single reason why I did the switch from the official version years ago! Thank you, @datadiode 🥇

[dennisroczek]

Shouldn't this stuff going to some MD (readme.md or so) file in the repository?

[Gitoffthelawn]

Are the comparison algorithms identical between WinMerge and WinMerge 2011?

IIRC, when I had trouble comparing some files with WinMerge, WinMerge 2011 would come to the rescue.

[datadiode]

WinMerge 2011 uses a less old version of Diffutils (v3.6).

[Gitoffthelawn]

Thanks. Do you know the reason why WinMerge still uses an more old version?

[datadiode]

I don't know, but one possible reason is to avoid GPLv3.

[Gitoffthelawn]

@datadiode If you haven't already read it, you may be interested in reading and watching WinMerge/winmerge#928, as I referenced our comments in this issue.