Binary compare of differently named files

[JohnFLand]

What setting(s) do I need to make BC 3.1.7 work like BC 2.x in this case:

I select file A from the left side (leftA) and file B from the right sides (rightB); both have different names but the same size, and should be identical (except as to name) if no download corruption has occurred.

I then select binary compare. In BC 2.x, both files would be binary compared, and an equal or not-equal indication displayed in a dialog. In BC 3.1.7, I get a dialog saying that leftA and rightB are both orphans -- which I knew in the first place, since they have different names. There does not appear to be any binary comparison performed at all.

[RunnerBiker]

With the two files highlighted, you can enter these keystrokes to get a Binary Comparison:

ALT+A W H

Hold ALT While pressing A
(optional)Release ALT
Press W
Press H
Release ALT if you didn't release it above.

With the mouse:
Click Actions
Hover over Open With
Click Hex Compare

Or, With the mouse:
Right Click one of the files
Hover over Open With
Click Hex Compare

[JohnFLand]

Thanks for the workaround. I just wanted an equal/not equal comparison -- Hex Compare gives too much info, and opens a new tab (instead of dialog) to do it.

It's too bad that BC3 changed the functionality of the "compare contents" toolbar button (to the silly "yes, the two differently named files you selected are indeed differently named and thus orphans").

Furthermore, I just discovered that the "compare contents" toolbar button is grayed out in BC3 when viewing the same directory on both sides -- unlike BC2, which allows you to compare the contents of 2 files in the same directory using the "compare contents" button.

I've reinstalled BC2 (in parallel with BC3, which I otherwise prefer) to do what I want.

[Zoë]

Use the "Quick Compare" command instead of "Compare Contents". It's designed to compare two selected files and gives a simple equal/not equal result. The "Compare Contents" command was changed because it was unpredictable when run from a script, but we are considering changing it back to BC2's behavior when run interactively.

[RunnerBiker]

Thanks for the workaround. I just wanted an equal/not equal comparison -- Hex Compare gives too much info, and opens a new tab (instead of dialog) to do it.

IIRC the BC2 dialog closed with the ESC key, just as the BC3 new tab.

I understand about the "too much info". In my experience if the Hex Compare takes longer than a few seconds, it is going to produce a mismatch, and I typically only want to know if the files are very very very similar or totally different. When they are "totally different" I press the ESC key to cancel the Hex Compare and close the Hex Compare Tab.

I guess you can see that I'm keyboard focused. For me it is a much faster interface than click, slide, click, slide (oops missed, try again) (Kinda like I putt when playing golf. It would be much faster to pick up the ball and drop it in the hole, but that option is frowned upon.)