Nonetheless, you shouldn’t expect otherwise for a Mac application, and of course their standards for design are impeccable. I have to say this is one of the more expensive solutions for code comparison tools. The app is free to download for a 30-day trial then charges a $29 purchase fee (about $39 USD) if you would want the app to keep. Kaleidoscope has been on the scene for a few years and has been featured in plenty of web design galleries. With the Windows solutions we’ve introduced, we can’t leave Mac users in the cold. Yet the ability to import and compare Excel spreadsheets easily justifies the licensing cost. It features a GUI similar tp the other solutions, along with basic command line options. If you’re constantly working in higher-level development languages then I suggest giving AFC a chance. You can lump these changes together into projects which behave like a small-scale version control system. The AFC software will keep a history of your changes so that you can revert to any point without losing previous data. Specifically, Excel spreadsheets are difficult to merge together when you need to switch between many tabs and sheets. One feature which really stands out is the ability to compare between Microsoft Office documents.
This pricing chart is fairly reasonable, especially considering you are locked in for free updates for life, with no recurring charges.
The cheapest license costs $10 for personal or $15 for businesses. Unfortunately this software is offered free only in a trial version. Code highlighting is supported for base web languages such as HTML and PHP. It’s called Active File Compare which targets programmers using slightly more complicated languages such as C++/C#, Java, Visual Basic, and Ruby. The development company Formula Software has put out a Microsoft Windows-specific tool used for professional code comparison and version management. I have to admit that for a free tool this program really blows away the competition! 3. If you check out their downloads page, you can pick from dozens of installer solutions. The added function of highlighting code differences in multiple panes makes DiffMerge all the more valuable.ĭiffMerge is 100% free to download. With this suite you’re not just limited to single file comparisons, but actually allowed to piece together entire folders of code! You can compare two project source folders side-by-side with relative ease. In each example it’s clear how the buttons and toolbars have been created and placed together simplisticly. Inside the DiffMerge screenshot gallery, you’ll find examples of the program running in Windows, Mac and Linux environments. Their software is also supported among all major operating systems, and they also feature a set of tools for comparing lines of code. DiffMergeĪnother great product DiffMerge has been put out there by a software company named SourceGear.
Of course, you can always download and install the app to get a hands-on experience. If you have the time, check out their online manual, which can help clear up any questions you’ve got. This may be the most globally accepted, among the major OS, free tool used for comparing code files.
You do not need to pay anything to gain full access to the power of their software suite.
What I really like about Diffuse is the open source nature of the project. These include line-by-line comparison and detailed code highlighting. Their site has a couple of screenshots you can check out along with a list of features. Each of the operating systems has support for command line prompts and a GUI-based window toolkit.ĭepending on how you like to work, the command line does speed things up considerably, but only if you know what you’re doing! To keep things simple, you may want to stick to basic GUI.
They offer installation codes for Linux, Win32, Mac OS X and FreeBSD. The Diffuse software is free to download through SourceForge. Recommended Reading: Top 10 Free Source Code Editors 1.
Both Windows and Mac OSX have their own free and paid tools, along with a web application which runs universally on all systems. In looking for software tools to use for code comparisons, you’ll run into a lot of different solutions. Luckily there are incredibly helpful tools available for just this type of situation. Buggy source codes will be a nagging problem throughout a developer’s career but a much less-considered issue is in the compiling and the merging of edits from two or more copies of the same source. Developers of many different languages all share the same growing pains.