Desktop apps

[Greg Rundlett]

Michael ODonnell wrote:
>>A decent file comparison and merge tool.
> 
> 
> tkdiff may not be exactly what you're looking
> for, but it's still pretty darned cool...
I had not heard of it previously.  I will certainly add it to my 
toolbox.  It does do 3-way diffs, and will show the current line in it's 
own little window at the bottom where you can see the exact point in the 
line that the two files are different.  Plus it does let you edit within 
the file comparison panes as opposed to just letting you apply a patch.

Regarding emacs...I once looked at Emacs, and it seemed to speak a 
different language than I do.  I'll have to look at it again.  However, 
since I know that Emacs can do just about anything, I'm sure that I will 
have to invest a lot of time and effort to get it to do what I want it 
to, while I try to avoid being confused by things that are not relevant 
to me.  For example, I'm not even dealing with C code, so I don't need 
any features related to compiling or debugging etc.   I just want a good 
tool that is specifically designed, and pre-configured to do an 
excellent job of file comparisons and merges.  Something that Araxis 
Merge is.  A quick check of Emacs (I gave it the same amount of time 
that I used to download, install and run tkdiff) confirms that I will 
have to invest a lot of time to be able to productively use it.  TKDiff 
is intuitive enough, and specialized so that I could instantly do 
something with it.  While I understand that emacs can be an extremely 
valuable tool, the GUI is anemic.

-Greg