8 ms·

I really like https://kaleidoscope.app https://kaleidoscope.app It has a new release and is the most Mac-like of the various diff tools I've used.

by selykg 4y ago

kstrauser 4y ago
It's such a pretty app, but I can't bring myself to drop $150 for it.
- corn13read 4y ago
- msbarnett 4y ago
  Eh, for how much use I get out of a merge tool, $150 is pretty meaningless for the right tool. We're talking fractions of fractions of fractions of a penny per use over many years. If it makes my life better those kinds of tooling costs aren't even worth thinking about. That said, I haven't used the new Kaleidoscope (although I was a fan of their last version and happily used it for 8 years or so), and currently use Sublime Merge. Edit: someone care to explain to me why this completely innocuous comment on my personal philosophy of tool value is worthy of downvoting to -2?
  - 40four 4y ago
    I’m sure someone as experienced as you knows commenting about up/ down votes is explicitly against the guidelines. No worries though. No need to fret, just imagine those sad souls, and what most be going through their heads, as to find your comment offensive :) Maybe they were pushing back against the idea of paying money, for good quality software, that provides value to your life?!? Haha, joking of course. But seriously, I agree with you. If it is a tool that I use all the time, makes my life easier, and is of good quality… I’m happy to pay up for a license. I’ve spent way more than that on my favorite database GUI clients over the years. Money well spent, and the developers earned it. Happy to support them!
    - WastingMyTime89 4y ago
      > Maybe they were pushing back against the idea of paying money, for good quality software, that provides value to your life?!? Or they realise the hubris you need to have to think 150$ to be a meaningless amount of money. It's already quite a sum at the median American salary and the USA is one of the most affluent countries from which HN readers hail.
      - msbarnett 4y ago
        > Or they realise the hubris you need to have to think 150$ to be a meaningless amount of money. It's already quite a sum at the median American salary and the USA is one of the most affluent countries from which HN readers hail. Ok, but I’m a software developer and this is a professional tool with which I do a job that makes me several hundred thousand dollars a year. I don’t know that it’s “hubris” to recognize that relative to the income this helps me create, its costs are a rounding error. Obviously $150 is a lot of money for a lot of people making a much lower income!… but those people likely aren’t in the market for a 3-way diff & merge tool, so I can’t imagine why you’d expect a discussion of this tool to have to add a disclaimer accounting for them? This is a professional tool whose costs exist relative to the income they create for the professional who wields them. My plumber brother-in-law certainly doesn’t refuse to spend tens of thousands of dollars on the equipment he uses for his job on the basis that this would be too expensive for someone working the counter at a fast food store. Nor should he – the costs make him money, and that’s what’s important. (indeed, compared to almost any trade you can think of, we're lucky that our tools cost so little)
        stingraycharles 4y ago
        > Obviously $150 is a lot of money for a lot of people making a much lower income!… but those people likely aren’t in the market for a 3-way diff & merge tool You’re forgetting that even in e.g. European countries, the average salary is much, much lower than in the US, most software devs don’t get 6-figure salaries. They would definitely be in the market for such a tool, but the price is prohibitive.
  - kstrauser 4y ago
    I get that. I'm sure I've paid for tools over the years that would make someone else shake their head. Good on the Kaleidoscope gang for making a tool that people are willing to shell out for. It still gives me sticker shock, though.
    - jw1224 4y ago
      I just realised I’ve been using Kaleidoscope for maybe 10 (?) years now. I certainly didn’t pay $150 for it at the time, but if I had done, it would’ve been worth every penny. — I seem to recall the app was acquired by a new development team a couple of years ago. It seems to have been one of those rare acquisitions where it’s consistently gotten better afterwards (and it was great to begin with).
  - Nextgrid 4y ago
    150 would be peanuts if there weren't any other tools out there, but there are plenty of alternatives, both free and paid, and some of which people might already be paying for (IntelliJ/PyCharm has a very good built-in diff tool).
    - 0des 4y ago
      Thats a tax write off, whatever the price is. This assumes they are employed and use it in the process.
      - xuki 4y ago
        Tax write off is not free. At best you get ~50% back. Still expensive if you don’t use it enough.
- simondotau 4y ago
  Especially since you can’t even edit text directly in it. WinMerge is pretty much the only Windows app I miss now that I’m using MacOS full time.
  - aaronblohowiak 4y ago
    Kdiff3
  - shadowfiend 4y ago
    That is false. You can edit directly in it, at minimum in 3 column view. I know because I do it regularly and have done for years.
    - simondotau 4y ago
      It is not false. You can't just drop two text files onto Kaleidoscope and perform a diff with manual edits. I do know that Kaleidoscope can support editing under certain specific conditions, but those aren't relevant for me. WinMerge supports editing under any conditions. https://twitter.com/kaleidoscopeapp/status/341930870900416512 https://twitter.com/kaleidoscopeapp/status/34193087090041651... That tweet is from 2013 and nothing has changed in the intervening nine years.
- denkmoon 4y ago
  Can't get work to drop $150 on it :(
- PokestarFan 4y ago
  Personally I prefer the IntelliJ merge tool since I don't have to pay extra for a 3rd program.
- kstrauser 4y ago
  As a side note, sorry I even brought this up. While I still think it's expensive for what it is, darned if I'm going to chastise anyone for buying a tool they like. I certainly didn't expect the conversation to go off the rails like that.
alecthomas 4y ago
I agree. The old version was super slow but still great, but the new major release a year or so ago is fantastic. Super fast, super intuitive. Well worth the $$
PragmaticPulp 4y ago
This has been a great app when I can expense it to my employer. But for personal use the UI improvements aren't quite enough to push me over the edge to buying it. The cheaper or open-source tools do just fine.
bingohbangoh 4y ago
It truly astounds me that such expensive software gets sold to consumers. Like "oh I could build that" kind of epiphanies.
dewey 4y ago
Agreed, it really was great to see it get bought by people who are enthusiastic about rebuilding it. It might seem expensive at first if you are not used to paying for software but it's not a subscription and if you use it at work you can probably get it through your employer in any case.
benjimouse 4y ago
Possibly I was missing something, but I found Kaleidoscope's handling of directory comparisons was totally unworkable for anything but trivial sized projects. Meaning, comparing two slightly different copies of a project containing maybe 1/4 a million files, with a few variations between them. It takes quite a while to initially open the comparison window, and that's fine as it's a lot of data to churn thru. But where the problem lies, is when you dbl click into a subdirectory of that comparison, it again takes forever to open a window for just the contents of that directory, even thou it already has done a full comparison of all the files in it, when opening the parent comparison. For some reason it starts again in that sub directory instead of just using the comparison data it's previously generated. I've used Araxis Merge, it's clunky, not really a true mac app, but actually works fairly decently. Pity it's effectively a subscription. Meld is ok, but crashes with large comparisons, and the UI is fairly painful.

I really like https://kaleidoscope.app https://kaleidoscope.app It has a new release and is the most Mac-like of the various diff tools I've used.

by selykg 4y ago

I really like https://kaleidoscope.app https://kaleidoscope.app It has a new release and is the most Mac-like of the various diff tools I've used.

kstrauser 4y ago

It's such a pretty app, but I can't bring myself to drop $150 for it.

corn13read 4y ago
msbarnett 4y ago
Eh, for how much use I get out of a merge tool, $150 is pretty meaningless for the right tool. We're talking fractions of fractions of fractions of a penny per use over many years. If it makes my life better those kinds of tooling costs aren't even worth thinking about. That said, I haven't used the new Kaleidoscope (although I was a fan of their last version and happily used it for 8 years or so), and currently use Sublime Merge. Edit: someone care to explain to me why this completely innocuous comment on my personal philosophy of tool value is worthy of downvoting to -2?
- 40four 4y ago
  I’m sure someone as experienced as you knows commenting about up/ down votes is explicitly against the guidelines. No worries though. No need to fret, just imagine those sad souls, and what most be going through their heads, as to find your comment offensive :) Maybe they were pushing back against the idea of paying money, for good quality software, that provides value to your life?!? Haha, joking of course. But seriously, I agree with you. If it is a tool that I use all the time, makes my life easier, and is of good quality… I’m happy to pay up for a license. I’ve spent way more than that on my favorite database GUI clients over the years. Money well spent, and the developers earned it. Happy to support them!
  - WastingMyTime89 4y ago
    > Maybe they were pushing back against the idea of paying money, for good quality software, that provides value to your life?!? Or they realise the hubris you need to have to think 150$ to be a meaningless amount of money. It's already quite a sum at the median American salary and the USA is one of the most affluent countries from which HN readers hail.
    - msbarnett 4y ago
      > Or they realise the hubris you need to have to think 150$ to be a meaningless amount of money. It's already quite a sum at the median American salary and the USA is one of the most affluent countries from which HN readers hail. Ok, but I’m a software developer and this is a professional tool with which I do a job that makes me several hundred thousand dollars a year. I don’t know that it’s “hubris” to recognize that relative to the income this helps me create, its costs are a rounding error. Obviously $150 is a lot of money for a lot of people making a much lower income!… but those people likely aren’t in the market for a 3-way diff & merge tool, so I can’t imagine why you’d expect a discussion of this tool to have to add a disclaimer accounting for them? This is a professional tool whose costs exist relative to the income they create for the professional who wields them. My plumber brother-in-law certainly doesn’t refuse to spend tens of thousands of dollars on the equipment he uses for his job on the basis that this would be too expensive for someone working the counter at a fast food store. Nor should he – the costs make him money, and that’s what’s important. (indeed, compared to almost any trade you can think of, we're lucky that our tools cost so little)
      - stingraycharles 4y ago
        > Obviously $150 is a lot of money for a lot of people making a much lower income!… but those people likely aren’t in the market for a 3-way diff & merge tool You’re forgetting that even in e.g. European countries, the average salary is much, much lower than in the US, most software devs don’t get 6-figure salaries. They would definitely be in the market for such a tool, but the price is prohibitive.
- kstrauser 4y ago
  I get that. I'm sure I've paid for tools over the years that would make someone else shake their head. Good on the Kaleidoscope gang for making a tool that people are willing to shell out for. It still gives me sticker shock, though.
  - jw1224 4y ago
    I just realised I’ve been using Kaleidoscope for maybe 10 (?) years now. I certainly didn’t pay $150 for it at the time, but if I had done, it would’ve been worth every penny. — I seem to recall the app was acquired by a new development team a couple of years ago. It seems to have been one of those rare acquisitions where it’s consistently gotten better afterwards (and it was great to begin with).
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  150 would be peanuts if there weren't any other tools out there, but there are plenty of alternatives, both free and paid, and some of which people might already be paying for (IntelliJ/PyCharm has a very good built-in diff tool).
  - 0des 4y ago
    Thats a tax write off, whatever the price is. This assumes they are employed and use it in the process.
    - xuki 4y ago
      Tax write off is not free. At best you get ~50% back. Still expensive if you don’t use it enough.
simondotau 4y ago
Especially since you can’t even edit text directly in it. WinMerge is pretty much the only Windows app I miss now that I’m using MacOS full time.
- aaronblohowiak 4y ago
  Kdiff3
- shadowfiend 4y ago
  That is false. You can edit directly in it, at minimum in 3 column view. I know because I do it regularly and have done for years.
  - simondotau 4y ago
    It is not false. You can't just drop two text files onto Kaleidoscope and perform a diff with manual edits. I do know that Kaleidoscope can support editing under certain specific conditions, but those aren't relevant for me. WinMerge supports editing under any conditions. https://twitter.com/kaleidoscopeapp/status/341930870900416512 https://twitter.com/kaleidoscopeapp/status/34193087090041651... That tweet is from 2013 and nothing has changed in the intervening nine years.
denkmoon 4y ago
Can't get work to drop $150 on it :(
PokestarFan 4y ago
Personally I prefer the IntelliJ merge tool since I don't have to pay extra for a 3rd program.
kstrauser 4y ago
As a side note, sorry I even brought this up. While I still think it's expensive for what it is, darned if I'm going to chastise anyone for buying a tool they like. I certainly didn't expect the conversation to go off the rails like that.

alecthomas 4y ago

I agree. The old version was super slow but still great, but the new major release a year or so ago is fantastic. Super fast, super intuitive. Well worth the $$

PragmaticPulp 4y ago

This has been a great app when I can expense it to my employer. But for personal use the UI improvements aren't quite enough to push me over the edge to buying it. The cheaper or open-source tools do just fine.

bingohbangoh 4y ago

It truly astounds me that such expensive software gets sold to consumers. Like "oh I could build that" kind of epiphanies.

dewey 4y ago

Agreed, it really was great to see it get bought by people who are enthusiastic about rebuilding it. It might seem expensive at first if you are not used to paying for software but it's not a subscription and if you use it at work you can probably get it through your employer in any case.

benjimouse 4y ago

Possibly I was missing something, but I found Kaleidoscope's handling of directory comparisons was totally unworkable for anything but trivial sized projects. Meaning, comparing two slightly different copies of a project containing maybe 1/4 a million files, with a few variations between them. It takes quite a while to initially open the comparison window, and that's fine as it's a lot of data to churn thru. But where the problem lies, is when you dbl click into a subdirectory of that comparison, it again takes forever to open a window for just the contents of that directory, even thou it already has done a full comparison of all the files in it, when opening the parent comparison. For some reason it starts again in that sub directory instead of just using the comparison data it's previously generated. I've used Araxis Merge, it's clunky, not really a true mac app, but actually works fairly decently. Pity it's effectively a subscription. Meld is ok, but crashes with large comparisons, and the UI is fairly painful.