CRC vs. Newer Date/Time

[Michael Bulgrien]

I do not have binary compare turned on, but I do have the CRC column visible. Files that have the same CRC value, but different date/time stamps (reflecting the date/time that they were retrieved from source control) are still visible in a folder compare when I have the "Same" toggle disabled (Same files filtered).

When the CRC column is visible, it would be nice if BC3 recognized files that are the same by the equal CRC value without also having to enable binary compares under session settings.

[Aaron]

Hello Michael,

We have customers who may want to just view the CRC value without comparing them. You can turn on Compare Contents CRC (isntead of Binary) which, with the CRC column enabled anyway, should not add a significant amount of work. Enabling Override Quick Tests should give the behavior you are looking for.
You can disable Scan Subfolders in background if you do not want the scan to start on your entire compare, and only update as you click around. If you want to scan an entire folder, you can right-click and Expand subfolders.

Disabling scan in subfolders will show yellow folders instead of timestamp compared folders, but would you want to see grey and red folders shift colors as you click around? If you expanded a pair of folders, what about the subfolders? Expanding those would potentially change the color again.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Thanks Aaron. I have set things up similar to what you are describing above...but it really doesn't make sense to use a CRC compare since a binary compare will be faster (since neither side of my compares have precalculated CRC values).

My point is that I don't have CRC visible in all sessions. I don't want to do a costly CRC check in all folder sessions, but in the sessions where the CRC column is visible, it would be nice if BC3 utilized the information rather than forcing me to change my session settings.

If you believe there is reason to leave it as is, then I won't argue it further. It just seemed like a good idea to me (a smarter product can minimize and/or eliminate the need to swap session settings back and forth for different sessions thus making the end user more productive)

[Aaron]

Well, the Session Setting -> Comparison -> CRC Comparison should also be a session specific setting, so for the sessions with the CRC column, you could also enable it as a comparison standard. It may be a bit much to go through all of your currently saved sessions (I know you have quite a few ), but for future sessions, or as test sessions, it may be a good idea to try out and see if you like it.

Also, while binary can be faster, if you are displaying the CRC column in those sessions, then you are calculating the CRC already. If you trust the CRC to be an accurate comparison then you could just use that value, rather than also calculate the Binary comparison.

Basically, either showing the column or enabling the CRC Comparison will trigger the calculation of the CRC value. Enabling the other will use that value: either to display it as a column or use it as a Comparison Criteria. In some cases, users will only want to do one or the other task, but it sounds like in your case you may wish to do both.

[Michael Bulgrien]

Thanks for your thoughts/feedback on this.