Re^2: wdiff in perl?

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Re^3: wdiff in perl? by Tanktalus (Canon) on Mar 04, 2005 at 15:50 UTC
In what way is it different from wdiff? I can't see how you can take two files, get the diff, and then apply it to get a third file. You need to start with three files ("base", "branch 1", and "branch 2") to get a fourth ("combined"). What you do is take the diff of branch 1 with base, and apply that diff to branch 2. It's not quite so easy because you'll have to deal with non-obvious matches: Both branches removed the same line. Trivial - keep it removed. Both branches change the same line. If the result is the same, then we're ok, but if they're different, there's no way to tell which one is right. Both branches add a line to the same location - which one goes first often doesn't matter, but often it does. I'd look at Algorithm::Diff::Apply to see if that would help.	[reply]

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Re^3: wdiff in perl?
by Tanktalus (Canon) on Mar 04, 2005 at 15:50 UTC

In what way is it different from wdiff? I can't see how you can take two files, get the diff, and then apply it to get a third file. You need to start with three files ("base", "branch 1", and "branch 2") to get a fourth ("combined"). What you do is take the diff of branch 1 with base, and apply that diff to branch 2. It's not quite so easy because you'll have to deal with non-obvious matches:

Both branches removed the same line. Trivial - keep it removed.
Both branches change the same line. If the result is the same, then we're ok, but if they're different, there's no way to tell which one is right.
Both branches add a line to the same location - which one goes first often doesn't matter, but often it does.

Algorithm::Diff::Apply

[reply]