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Fun Fact. FileMerge.app has remained essentially unchanged since it was introduced in NeXTSTEP (I think 3.2 or earlier) in the early 1990s.

newaccount74 4y ago
FileMerge is a complete app. There's nothing more that it needs to do. It's trivial to understand, there is no learning curve, and it is my go-to tool when I need to quickly diff two files or folders.
- grishka 4y ago
  > FileMerge is a complete app. As are many other apps. Yet they keep getting redesigned and engulfed by endless feature creep because people gotta work on something.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
user3939382 4y ago
Copyright on it is 1996
- SeanLuke 4y ago
  FileMerge was released in NeXTSTEP 3.2, which came out in 1993. See for example: https://www.blackholeinc.com/Library/94%20Jan.html https://www.blackholeinc.com/Library/94%20Jan.html Indeed, I have it on my Turbo NeXTStation (3.2). Was it revised slightly for NeXTSTEP 4.0 (1996) perhaps?
js2 4y ago
It’s what I use for my diff tool with git. It’s available on the command line as opendiff.
ryankshaw 4y ago
yup. protip: Put this in your ~/.gitconfig [merge] tool = opendiff then next time you get a merge conflict, just do: `git mergetool` it will open xcode's FileMerge.app, which is the best mergetool I've ever used.
eschaton 4y ago
No, not really. It may look similar but a lot of it has changed between the early 1990s and today.
- SeanLuke 4y ago
  Can you elaborate?
  - eschaton 4y ago
    Not at the moment and not in much detail, but I can say authoritatively that it’s changed since the NeXT days and over the years that it’s been part of Xcode, as one of the people who has made changes to it.
onetom 4y ago
Can you edit the merge result in-place though? I can't live without that feature. After you experience the convenience of that, jumping elsewhere to adjust the merged code feels such a hassle...

newaccount74 4y ago

FileMerge is a complete app. There's nothing more that it needs to do. It's trivial to understand, there is no learning curve, and it is my go-to tool when I need to quickly diff two files or folders.

grishka 4y ago
> FileMerge is a complete app. As are many other apps. Yet they keep getting redesigned and engulfed by endless feature creep because people gotta work on something.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

user3939382 4y ago

SeanLuke 4y ago
FileMerge was released in NeXTSTEP 3.2, which came out in 1993. See for example: https://www.blackholeinc.com/Library/94%20Jan.html https://www.blackholeinc.com/Library/94%20Jan.html Indeed, I have it on my Turbo NeXTStation (3.2). Was it revised slightly for NeXTSTEP 4.0 (1996) perhaps?

js2 4y ago

It’s what I use for my diff tool with git. It’s available on the command line as opendiff.

ryankshaw 4y ago

yup. protip: Put this in your ~/.gitconfig [merge] tool = opendiff then next time you get a merge conflict, just do: `git mergetool` it will open xcode's FileMerge.app, which is the best mergetool I've ever used.

eschaton 4y ago

No, not really. It may look similar but a lot of it has changed between the early 1990s and today.

SeanLuke 4y ago
Can you elaborate?
- eschaton 4y ago
  Not at the moment and not in much detail, but I can say authoritatively that it’s changed since the NeXT days and over the years that it’s been part of Xcode, as one of the people who has made changes to it.

onetom 4y ago

Can you edit the merge result in-place though? I can't live without that feature. After you experience the convenience of that, jumping elsewhere to adjust the merged code feels such a hassle...