BC2 “unimportant difference” feature lost in BC3

[dnuss]

In BC2 you can easily determine if files are different only because of “Unimportant Text”. Specifically, when I need to look for web files ( *.php ) downloaded from a Unix server ( 0A ending ) that have been inadvertently saved as PC files ( 0D0A endings ) I only need to have 2 options set in file comparison rules:

• General Tab: whitespace includes Line Endings
• Importance Tab: Unimportant Text includes Line Endings

The above options turn lines blue when “ignore unimportant” is “off” in file compare, and in folder compare the “squiggly equals sign” icon shows in the center of the folder / file list. This makes it real easy to find and fix these files.

In BC3 there doesn’t appear to be the same functionality. While I can tell BC3 to “Compare Line Endings”, this option forces the difference to be treated as “Important”. Then I can’t easily determine which files are REALLY different or just SIMILAR.

Is there a way in BC3 to give me the outcome I was used to in BC2? I hate to have to re-install BC2 and give up on BC3.

Thanks,

Dave

[Aaron]

Thanks for the feedback.

In BC3, open a folder compare session.

Then Open the pair of text files and go to the Session Settings: Importance tab.
Make sure Compare Line Endings is checked and then uncheck the other options. Set this to apply for all files of the parent session with the lower left dropdown.

Run a rules-based comparison on your files to find all files with the mixed line endings, which you can then fix.

You can then go back and change the Session Settings' Importance to re-run a different rules-based scan.

[dnuss]

Aaron,

Thank you for responding, but...

Performing the compares after making the settings changes you describe really doesn't change anything. Selecting the Compare Line Endings option causes all files with mixed line endings to be treated (and shown) as IMPORTANT differences and will be mixed in with files that have actual real differences.

The inability to tell the compare engine to treat different line endings as UNIMPORTANT is, in my opinion, a real step down in capabilities from BC2 to BC3.

Looks like I will need to re-install BC2 and run dual systems.

[Michael Bulgrien]

I think Aaron misunderstood what you were trying to do.
Try unchecking the "Compare Line Endings" option and use the Rules-based comparison.

[dnuss]

Unchecking the "Compare Line Endings" causes the compare engine to ignore line endings so this does not work either. I am using Rules-based comparison.

To me, the lack of the ability in BC3 to set the option of "Unimportant Text includes Line Endings" is where the problem is. I am curious as to why this option was changed from BC2 to BC3.

[Michael Bulgrien]

The Scooter team's mindset for BC3 is to not allow users to corrupt their files by manually tweaking line endings in a file compare session. If you already have a file with mixed line endings, the Scooter team's expectation is that you will perform a File \ Save As operation to correct the line endings throughout the entire file in a single operation. After the save, the line ending differences become a non-issue.

While this may not be the same workflow you used in BC2, it should prevent the need to revert back to BC2 for handling line-ending differences.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Just so you know, I don't agree 100% with the BC3 handling of line endings either (see this thread) but I've managed to find work-arounds for the time being. Hopefully we'll see some changes down the road... but for now the Scooter team seems hesitant to make any changes... and the lack of follow-up responses on my thread suggests that the whole topic is being dismissed as low priority...

[dnuss]

The particular task I use this for is to identify a list of files that have been saved as PC files from their original UNIX format. These files do not have "Mixed" line endings, they are either PC or UNIX, so I am not concerned about potential user corruption by "manually tweaking line endings".

But thanks for taking the time to reply.

Dave

[dnuss]

I have read your other thread and understand your point of view. I have been using BC since 2002 on a personal basis and before I retired ( 30+ years in software design ) I went out on a limb and convinced my multi-national company to purchase site-wide license. I still think BC is the best, but I get concerned when products start showing "loss of feature / function" that you rely on.

I also don't like the direction that support is going with reliance on "forum" solutions, but then that is the nature of the industry, and one of the reasons I got out.... I find fishing to be much more rewarding these days...

Thanks again for your replies...

Dave

[Michael Bulgrien]

The particular task I use this for is to identify a list of files that have been saved as PC files from their original UNIX format. These files do not have "Mixed" line endings, they are either PC or UNIX, so I am not concerned about potential user corruption by "manually tweaking line endings".

Thanks for the clarification. You might be interested in one of my recent enhancement suggestions: http://www.scootersoftware.com/vbull...ead.php?t=4556

Seems to me that your issue might be handled similarly (having the ability to enable a column within the folder compare that would reflect the native platform that the file is formatted for.) Just a thought. If implemented, such an enhancement would also allow you to sort your files by that characteristic, etc.

As to your particular issue with dropped functionality, I am confident that the Scooter team will revisit this thread once they note that a satisfactory work-around was not uncovered by our discussion. They are swamped, but are pretty good at addressing issues that the forum user-base have been unable to resolve independently.

[bc2user]

Similar issue with Date/Time Stamp

I too am unhappy with the inability of bc3 to show which files have unimportant differences from the comparison list. I'm comparing HTML files with date differences (Thu Apr 23 xx:xx:xx vs Wed Apr 22 xx:xx:xx) and thusly modified the rules to include an RE that hides the date differences so that I can ascertain which files have IMPORTANT differences. The issue is the screen with the list of file comparisons shows them all with IMPORTANT differences until I manually select each comparison, open the specific file comparison which shows UNIMPORTANT differences, exit the file comparison, and then the list of file comparisons shows the UNIMPORTANT difference icon for the 2 files I just compared. I'm just not able to drive BC3 to do the "deep" comparison and give me the UNIMPORTANT differences without having to painfully view each specific file comparison. Perhaps and hopefully I'm missing something. This seems like a parallel issue as with the line
endings differences.

[Zoë]

To tell BC to do a rules-based (content) comparison of all the files in a directory use the Session->Session Settings... menu item. On the "Comparison" tab, check the "Compare contents" and "Rules-based comparison" options. It will then do the same comparison as the file viewers automatically.