## this is the framework:  
## One of the two code snippets below are
## substituted for ### DIFF ALGORITHM HERE..

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use lib "/Users/allasso/AWS/utility/cpan/lib/perl5/site_perl";
require Algorithm::Diff;
use Time::HiRes qw( time );

my($source_path_1, $source_path_2) = @ARGV;

my $holdRS = $/;
local $/;
if (! open(FH, $source_path_1)) {
    print "unable to open source file 1: $source_path_1\n";
}
my $filestring_1 = <FH>;
$/ = $holdRS;
close(FH);

$holdRS = $/;
local $/;
if (! open(FH, $source_path_2)) {
    print "unable to open source file 2: $source_path_2\n";
}
my $filestring_2 = <FH>;
$/ = $holdRS;
close(FH);

$filestring_1 =~ s@\s+@\n@g;
$filestring_2 =~ s@\s+@\n@g;

my $time = time();

for my $count (0..999) {
    
   ### DIFF ALGORITHM HERE..

}

my $time_4sig = time() - $time + .005;
$time_4sig =~ s@^(.....).*@$1@;
print STDERR "\n\net:  ".$time_4sig."\n";

exit;
    

## this is the CPAN Algorithm::Diff code:

    my @seq1 = split(/\n/, $filestring_1);
    my @seq2 = split(/\n/, $filestring_2);

    my $diff = Algorithm::Diff->new( \@seq1, \@seq2 );
    
    $diff->Base( 1 );   # Return line numbers, not indices
    while(  $diff->Next()  ) {
        next   if  $diff->Same();
        my $sep = '';
        if(  ! $diff->Items(2)  ) {
            printf "%d,%dd%d\n",
                $diff->Get(qw( Min1 Max1 Max2 ));
        } elsif(  ! $diff->Items(1)  ) {
            printf "%da%d,%d\n",
                $diff->Get(qw( Max1 Min2 Max2 ));
        } else {
            $sep = "\n---\n";
            printf "%d,%dc%d,%d\n",
                $diff->Get(qw( Min1 Max1 Min2 Max2 ));
        }
        print "< $_"   for  $diff->Items(1);
        print $sep;
        print "> $_\n"   for  $diff->Items(2);
    }


## this is the diffutils code:

    if (! open(FH, ">/tmp/diff_774885959483_1")) {
        print "unable to open temporary file\n";
    }
    print FH "$filestring_1";
    close (FH);
    
    if (! open(FH, ">/tmp/diff_774885959483_2")) {
        print "unable to open temporary file\n";
    }
    print FH "$filestring_2";
    close (FH);
    
    print "$source_path_1  :::  $source_path_2\n";

    print `diff --suppress-common-lines -y /tmp/diff_774885959483_1 /tmp/diff_774885959483_2`;