ability to force file compare on archives, from the explorer

[Zoë]

Binary compares check the size of the file before even opening them, and quit out as soon as it discovers a difference. By default, the only time you'll see that dialog is if the file sizes match and enough of the start of the files match that it doesn't detect a difference for at least 1/4 second. If, for some reason, you have a pair of archives that do match that, but you know there's actually a difference much later in the files, you can just click the "View Comparison" button (not sure that's the actual text), and it will quit the quick compare and launch the full viewer.

[buggers]

When we get to it, the most likely change would be for archive files to have the same quick compare dialog that files have, with the same default behavior.

One problem with doing only that: if you know you want to do a folder compare, and the archive is large, doing a quick compare first would be a waste of time. You would be running the compare twice on the same file, first as file, then as folder.

I am not opposed to an option for quick compare on archives, but it should be possible to turn it off (to avoid the above scenario) but still be able to force a file compare from the explorer context menu.

[Zoë]

When we get to it, the most likely change would be for archive files to have the same quick compare dialog that files have, with the same default behavior. That is, it will show an initial dialog and do a quick compare before opening the folder compare. If the files match it will stop there; if they're different it would launch the folder compare automatically. You can already disable the auto-open behavior in the options dialog, and if you did that you could manually switch between the folder compare and the hex compare.

I'd probably restrict it to a binary comparison in this case. A rules-based comparison would basically be the folder compare, and the only time it would be better than the full folder compare would be if the archive metadata changed but the contained files didn't.

[buggers]

How does the proposed *.ext handling workaround behave for you?

As I said, you don't want to have to fiddle with options before a comparison, to make sure it's configured the way you currently need (file or folder).

You are assuming that one would want to compare all files with a given extension the same way.

The compare type needed varies with circumstances, sometimes you just want a binary quick compare to see if the file is the same, other times you want to diff individual files.

And it just occurred to me, that even when you want a folder compare on an archive, you should be able to configure a binary quick compare first, because if the files are binary equivalent, there is no point in opening an empty folder view.

So here's an ideal situation, you're able to dynamically chose the compare type for an archive , if you pick file it does a (configured) binary quick compare, if the files are different, the quick compare dialog allows you to open the folder view.

[Aaron]

Hello,

Our Customer Wishlist is not currently scheduled development, but a place where our developers go for ideas for future features or enhancements. We don't have a timetable available.

How does the proposed *.ext handling workaround behave for you?

[buggers]

There isn't a way to configure BC3's explorer context menu to treat folders/archives sometimes as files. This is on our Customer Wishlist.

This would be quite helpful, as you don't want to have to fiddle with options before a comparison, to make sure it's configured the way you currently need (file or folder). And not a lot of work, I think.

When might this be released?

[Aaron]

Hello,

Are these specific archive extensions you want to binary compare? You can go to the Tools menu -> Options, Folder Views, and in the Archive Associations list remove the *.ext extension of your files. This will cause them to always be treated as files, while other archives will remain folders.

There isn't a way to configure BC3's explorer context menu to treat folders/archives sometimes as files. This is on our Customer Wishlist.

[buggers]

It should be possible to select archives that are configured for folder compare, and chose file compare from the explorer context menu, resulting in the configured binary quick compare. Just because a file can be compared as a folder, does not mean you always want to.