Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Better diff/merge

Wouldn't it be nice if your VCS/SCM understood the code that was checked in, so that it could show diffs that were correctly contained?

For example, I modify a method and delete the method right after it. It shouldn't show that as a single change, but as two (one change for the modify, one for the delete). Or if I move a method in the source file but leave it otherwise unchanged (or even change it!): it shows as a 'move' (and potentially, then, a change as well!).

Some of this could be done without understanding the code much, eg, looking for identical blocks of text between the new and old files, which constitute 'moves'.

And it wouldn't have to happen when sending changes to the server, just when comparing the two versions for human consumption.

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