Compare identical files for editing

[browny]

A brief search brought no results, though the idea is rather obvious.
The plan is to copy a file, mark both and open comparison tool for minor editing while keeping the second pane with the unchanged contents for visual reference.

The request is to add another button to the friendly dialog that tells "File contents are the same..." and the lonely "OK" button to exit.
The additional button should mean "Never mind", and proceed with opening the comparison very much like it happens if files have no differences as the result of editing - there would be a warning, but the tool still shows both panes with the same contents.

It might be even possible to keep MessageBox (that should be the one, no reaction to Esc key).
If the message asks about going on with comparison of identical files, OK and Cancel will do, and even Esc might be working.

Edit. There is a trivial way: after showing the message box (contents were the same...) go on to the compare tool window.
Maybe I even will try to patch the executable as a proof of concept.

[Horst.Epp]

A brief search brought no results, though the idea is rather obvious.
The plan is to copy a file, mark both and open comparison tool for minor editing while keeping the second pane with the unchanged contents for visual reference.

The request is to add another button to the friendly dialog that tells "File contents are the same..." and the lonely "OK" button to exit.
The additional button should mean "Never mind", and proceed with opening the comparison very much like it happens if files have no differences as the result of editing - there would be a warning, but the tool still shows both panes with the same contents.

It might be even possible to keep MessageBox (that should be the one, no reaction to Esc key).
If the message asks about going on with comparison of identical files, OK and Cancel will do, and even Esc might be working.

Rather confusing idea.
This job is part of many good and even free editors.

[browny]

Rather confusing idea.
This job is part of many good and even free editors.

Thanks, that was hilarious.

[gdpr deleted 6]

I agree with Horst. What you are asking for is a feature whose purpose will not be intuitively understood. I wager it will even invite a lot of questions fired at Christian what the purpose would be for opening the file compare tool for identical files. I get it, it is a feature that suits you. Heck, there are many features/ideas that would suit me but would still be very confusing to anybody else.

In the end, it is of course Christian's decision. I do not want to discourage you or anybody else to make feature suggestions. But this does not mean that feature suggestions should be immune from critizism or disagreement.

As an aside, just because a feature might be cheap/easy to implement does not automatically make it worthwhile or sensible to implement. There is of course a balance between implementation effort, regression risks and gained benefits/features. But a new feature to implement has to have a clear overall benefit to begin with to make it worthwhile. Otherwise, the saying would be "just because you can means you should". Yes, i know, that was hilarious


P.S.: TC has a command line argument ("/SC" or "/S=C", if i am not mistaken) to open the file compare tool directly from the command line or a batch file. I don't know, though, how it behaves when two identical files are being provided through this command line. If it were to open the file compare tool even if the two files are identical, this might provide you a solution with the help of a custom user command...

[petermad]

TC has a command line argument ("/SC" or "/S=C", if i am not mistaken) to open the file compare tool directly from the command line or a batch file. I don't know, though, how it behaves when two identical files are being provided through this command line. If it were to open the file compare tool even if the two files are identical, this might provide you a solution with the help of a custom user command...

I Just tested that - It behaves the same way as the cm_IntCompareFilesByContent command, hence doesn't open the compare window for identical files.

[Horst.Epp]

The cm_CompareFilesByContent behaves like requested
if the configured external compare tool supports that.
In my case its Beyond Compare which allows identical files to be compared.