[9.51] Show only differences doesn't work when only whitespaces differ

[MVV]

I've just noticed that "Show only differences" feature of file comparer doesn't hide any lines when only whitespaces differ. E.g. I have two files that only differ in tabs/spaces and look identical (all lines are black) with enabled "Ignore repeated spaces" option, and when I check "Show only differences" option, just nothing happens: no lines are hidden, even drop-down list with number of extra lines stays disabled. I think that this feature should hide all file lines if they all look identical with selected compare options. Just because there are no differences at all. This should help to see that there are really no differences.

Code: Select all

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: application/octet-stream; name="test.7z"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="test.7z"

N3q8ryccAASezQmQIgUAAAAAAAAiAAAAAAAAABqIBoLgGywEqF0AF+B8hm8wiPEisjcd5FpI5/+j
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AAyAlgoB8/uNpQAA

[ghisler(Author)]

Unfortunately I cannot open your decoded test.7z archive, neither internally nor with 7zfm.exe.

I guess that Total Commander reports "0 differences found" in the footer. In this case, it will not do anything when you try to show only differences.

[petermad]

Unfortunately I cannot open your decoded test.7z archive, neither internally nor with 7zfm.exe.

Hmm, I have no problems opening it - I have uploaded the decoded file here: https://madsenworld.dk/tcmd/MVVtest.7z

[MVV]

ghisler(Author),
I can perfectly open this archive with 7-Zip GUI 19 or with internal TC unpacker (with clean INI).

You're right, TC shows '0 differences'. But I think that in such case this option should just show empty panels, current behaviour is buggy. At least because the checkbox gets enabled but combobox doesn't - this is inconsistent.

Anyway, I don't see any sense in such an exclusion for equal files, option 'show only differences' may really do what it is named for - show only differences, and simply show nothing when there are no differences (just because it does what it is named for). This behaviour will be consistent and will not confuse anyone. Combobox for such cases should get enabled (expected when one enables the option) but change nothing (it will be expected too - no differences so no anchors to show some equal lines so combobox selection doesn't matter).

[petermad]

I tend to agree with MVV.

[ghisler(Author)]

I can confirm that it gets "0 differences". TC shows the entire files in this case, the user would be very confused when nothing at all would be shown, especially when using "show extra lines"...

[MVV]

As you can see, a user (me) is confused that option is broken and something wrong is shown when there are no differences and only differences are expected to be shown.
And that checkbox looks to be broken since it doesn't enable combobox.

[ghisler(Author)]

Well, you can never get it right for everyone...

[MVV]

But I really don't think that anyone wants to see equal contents if only differences should be shown.