Small wishes for Compare by content tool
Posted: 2016-08-01, 11:39 UTC
I'll just drop several vague ideas and maybe some of that would be found interesting.
1) It might be nice to have the difference number (index in the list) to be displayed.
Or maybe even an entry field with direct jump by difference number.
I do not expect that this index would be tracked when user randomly moves around; only on go to next/previous difference commands.
2) Another "vertical" positioning helper: colour stripes which mark differences in scrollbar or nearby. It seems to be a stock feature of modern diff tools (though the idea existed in times of ancient Windiff program, if not before).
Edit. There are two vertical scroll bars. It both move synchronously, then one could be replaced with graphic representation of differences.
3) Done two lines are displayed at the bottom.
There is already a topic in Suggestions about highlighting found text (with yellow marker-like background). While I agree with that, I also think that similar background highlighting (with different hue, naturally) might be a great help in ordinary difference display.
It is quite a chanllenge to find a single-character difference - dot or comma (let alone space) in a line, especially when a lot of horizontal scrolling is involved.
4) Done, Alt+Left/Alt+Right for fast horizontal scroll.
Speaking of horizontal scrolling - it is too slow with keyboard, and mouse clicks on a scrollbar is an inconvenient method in most cases.
Could Ctrl-Left/Right combinations be added to scroll by wider steps?
Step might be measured in character width or in (fraction of) panel width.
Edit.After a while I understood that we are using PgUp/PgDown without major problems, and so scrolling horizontally by full width of panel would be good.
1) It might be nice to have the difference number (index in the list) to be displayed.
Or maybe even an entry field with direct jump by difference number.
I do not expect that this index would be tracked when user randomly moves around; only on go to next/previous difference commands.
2) Another "vertical" positioning helper: colour stripes which mark differences in scrollbar or nearby. It seems to be a stock feature of modern diff tools (though the idea existed in times of ancient Windiff program, if not before).
Edit. There are two vertical scroll bars. It both move synchronously, then one could be replaced with graphic representation of differences.
3) Done two lines are displayed at the bottom.
There is already a topic in Suggestions about highlighting found text (with yellow marker-like background). While I agree with that, I also think that similar background highlighting (with different hue, naturally) might be a great help in ordinary difference display.
It is quite a chanllenge to find a single-character difference - dot or comma (let alone space) in a line, especially when a lot of horizontal scrolling is involved.
4) Done, Alt+Left/Alt+Right for fast horizontal scroll.
Speaking of horizontal scrolling - it is too slow with keyboard, and mouse clicks on a scrollbar is an inconvenient method in most cases.
Could Ctrl-Left/Right combinations be added to scroll by wider steps?
Step might be measured in character width or in (fraction of) panel width.
Edit.After a while I understood that we are using PgUp/PgDown without major problems, and so scrolling horizontally by full width of panel would be good.