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Is there a diffing as service startup? If someone nailed the execution and supported lots of types of content, I'm sure there'd be a market.

by nopal 14y ago

etwigg 14y ago
I actually think there's an even bigger market for desktop diffing than web diffing. Most files that need diffing start their lives on a desktop. And most of the time, the diff happens before those files hit the cloud - while you're committing / merging with the central server. If things like circuits.io and Cloud9 beat their desktop counterparts then I'm wrong, but if people (and especially enterprises) continue to do most of their complex work in native apps and not in the browser, then I think I'm right.
- nopal 14y ago
  I wasn't necessarily talking about diffing on the web. I was actually talking about a diffing service. I've seen lots of diffing programs and they all seem to have varying levels of success. I think there's an opportunity for a company to become the gold standard for diffing and to offer their diffing engine via a service that can be integrated into apps (web and desktop). I bet there are lots of app developers who would like to have a robust diffing engine in their apps, but don't have the time or expertise to build one themselves. EDIT: I see that you're the author. Have you thought about putting your diffing engine behind a web service?
  - etwigg 14y ago
    People have suggested that I put the engine behind a web service. I don't personally have strong web skills, but I could learn / find collaborators. The thing that I'm most interested in is building diff for things which haven't had very good diff before - CAD files, schematics, spreadsheets, etc. For each data format, you need a different set of diff tools. I've built a grab-bag of diff algorithms for diffing different kinds of data (the Simulink diff in particular is a showcase of the different kinds of data DiffPlug can work with). My goal is to release this grab-bag so that people can build their own tools on top of it, but I also have several tools in particular that I want to build.

Is there a diffing as service startup? If someone nailed the execution and supported lots of types of content, I'm sure there'd be a market.

by nopal 14y ago

Is there a diffing as service startup? If someone nailed the execution and supported lots of types of content, I'm sure there'd be a market.

etwigg 14y ago

I actually think there's an even bigger market for desktop diffing than web diffing. Most files that need diffing start their lives on a desktop. And most of the time, the diff happens before those files hit the cloud - while you're committing / merging with the central server. If things like circuits.io and Cloud9 beat their desktop counterparts then I'm wrong, but if people (and especially enterprises) continue to do most of their complex work in native apps and not in the browser, then I think I'm right.

nopal 14y ago
I wasn't necessarily talking about diffing on the web. I was actually talking about a diffing service. I've seen lots of diffing programs and they all seem to have varying levels of success. I think there's an opportunity for a company to become the gold standard for diffing and to offer their diffing engine via a service that can be integrated into apps (web and desktop). I bet there are lots of app developers who would like to have a robust diffing engine in their apps, but don't have the time or expertise to build one themselves. EDIT: I see that you're the author. Have you thought about putting your diffing engine behind a web service?
- etwigg 14y ago
  People have suggested that I put the engine behind a web service. I don't personally have strong web skills, but I could learn / find collaborators. The thing that I'm most interested in is building diff for things which haven't had very good diff before - CAD files, schematics, spreadsheets, etc. For each data format, you need a different set of diff tools. I've built a grab-bag of diff algorithms for diffing different kinds of data (the Simulink diff in particular is a showcase of the different kinds of data DiffPlug can work with). My goal is to release this grab-bag so that people can build their own tools on top of it, but I also have several tools in particular that I want to build.