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I wonder about priorities when I read this. For example, how do I diff two commits via Github? There is a blog post describing this feature: https://github.com

I wonder about priorities when I read this. For example, how do I diff two commits via Github? There is a blog post describing this feature: https://github.com/blog/612-introducing-github-compare-view https://github.com/blog/612-introducing-github-compare-view However it seems the UI has changed, and the only way I could find to use it was to manually construct the URL. I'd love for someone to show me some obvious UI I've missed. Diffing is really fundamental for a VCS. I'd much rather Github cleaned up the UI for existing features than added these little flourishes that I can't imagine even 1% of users use.

cobychapple 13y ago
The main way to get to the compare view is from the branches page: 1. View the branches page: https://github.com/github/markup/branches https://github.com/github/markup/branches 2. Click the "Compare" button next to a branch. 3. On the following page there’s a control at the top where you can change the comparison range to compare any branch, tag, or SHA with any other. Hope that helps!
NoodleIncident 13y ago
Why not just do that locally? Github lets you see the diff for a single commit on their site. This makes sense, because you can use this information to take action on their site, by either approving or denying the pull request. The only use case for commit-commit diffs that I can think of, though, is if you plan on manually merging them and resolving conflicts, which you cannot do on Github (to my knowledge). There exist many graphical and command-line utilities that you can run on your machine, the same place you will be making those changes. To me, Github's two jobs are to host reposiitories, and to make it easy to find and view the repositories of others. They do both of these jobs very well, and this map plugin makes Github better at the second in at least some cases. Once it comes time to actually start changing things, though, I get off of Github, and work on the local copy I have with the tools on my machine. Replicating this functionality isn't, to me, what Github is for. As an aside, if there is a way to manually construct a url, there's a shortcut to getting Github to add it to the UI. A few months ago, someone made a JavaScript bookmarklet to add a search bar to any repository, since the UI for this functionality was so clunky. Because of its popularity, Github added a proper repository-specific search bar.
- dllthomas 13y ago
  My site (an AGPL project) tracks a history of versions it has been built with (commit hash plus diff against that commit). "What changed between this version and the last" is the link I want in that feed.
Newky 13y ago
I have to agree. The fact that you still cannot do side by side diffs on pull requests makes it a less than useful code review tool.
- gcr 13y ago
  What's the difference between a diff and a side-by-side view of two files? I'd (usually) prefer the former.
  - swang 13y ago
    It is difficult to follow the code that's been added when all the deletions/diffs get in the way.
    - sdesol 13y ago
      I agree. I find that unified diffs work well 90% of the time but when it doesn't it can be crippling. I've attached some screenshots at http://screenshots.gitsense.com/index.html http://screenshots.gitsense.com/index.html that illustrates where side by side becomes a requirement for me. Yeah I can make sense of things with a unified view but the side by side really makes things more obvious. Note you can find this diff at github at https://github.com/joyent/node/pull/5615/files#L0L80 https://github.com/joyent/node/pull/5615/files#L0L80
      - jervisfm 13y ago
        What program or tool were you using to see the diffs side by side ?
        sdesol 13y ago
        It's from my tool that I've been developing. You can see how the diffing works at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi7GvcW1NKA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi7GvcW1NKA Unfortunately I don't show you how to switch to the side by side view. To do this, you just click on the view toggle button at the top left corner of the diff window.

cobychapple 13y ago

The main way to get to the compare view is from the branches page: 1. View the branches page: https://github.com/github/markup/branches https://github.com/github/markup/branches 2. Click the "Compare" button next to a branch. 3. On the following page there’s a control at the top where you can change the comparison range to compare any branch, tag, or SHA with any other. Hope that helps!

NoodleIncident 13y ago

Why not just do that locally? Github lets you see the diff for a single commit on their site. This makes sense, because you can use this information to take action on their site, by either approving or denying the pull request. The only use case for commit-commit diffs that I can think of, though, is if you plan on manually merging them and resolving conflicts, which you cannot do on Github (to my knowledge). There exist many graphical and command-line utilities that you can run on your machine, the same place you will be making those changes. To me, Github's two jobs are to host reposiitories, and to make it easy to find and view the repositories of others. They do both of these jobs very well, and this map plugin makes Github better at the second in at least some cases. Once it comes time to actually start changing things, though, I get off of Github, and work on the local copy I have with the tools on my machine. Replicating this functionality isn't, to me, what Github is for. As an aside, if there is a way to manually construct a url, there's a shortcut to getting Github to add it to the UI. A few months ago, someone made a JavaScript bookmarklet to add a search bar to any repository, since the UI for this functionality was so clunky. Because of its popularity, Github added a proper repository-specific search bar.

dllthomas 13y ago
My site (an AGPL project) tracks a history of versions it has been built with (commit hash plus diff against that commit). "What changed between this version and the last" is the link I want in that feed.

Newky 13y ago

I have to agree. The fact that you still cannot do side by side diffs on pull requests makes it a less than useful code review tool.

gcr 13y ago
What's the difference between a diff and a side-by-side view of two files? I'd (usually) prefer the former.
- swang 13y ago
  It is difficult to follow the code that's been added when all the deletions/diffs get in the way.
  - sdesol 13y ago
    I agree. I find that unified diffs work well 90% of the time but when it doesn't it can be crippling. I've attached some screenshots at http://screenshots.gitsense.com/index.html http://screenshots.gitsense.com/index.html that illustrates where side by side becomes a requirement for me. Yeah I can make sense of things with a unified view but the side by side really makes things more obvious. Note you can find this diff at github at https://github.com/joyent/node/pull/5615/files#L0L80 https://github.com/joyent/node/pull/5615/files#L0L80
    - jervisfm 13y ago
      What program or tool were you using to see the diffs side by side ?
      - sdesol 13y ago
        It's from my tool that I've been developing. You can see how the diffing works at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi7GvcW1NKA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi7GvcW1NKA Unfortunately I don't show you how to switch to the side by side view. To do this, you just click on the view toggle button at the top left corner of the diff window.