Windows Diff Tool

A powerful side-by-side file comparison tool for Windows, inspired by the Linux diff command but with enhanced visual features and separate CLI and GUI interfaces.

Features

• Side-by-side comparison with syntax highlighting
• Separate CLI and GUI commands for specific use cases
• Colored terminal output with Windows support
• Ignore whitespace option
• Statistics showing added, deleted, and changed lines
• Cross-platform Python implementation
• Easy to use with simple command-line interface

Installation

1. Clone or download this repository
2. Install Python dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

GUI Interface (Recommended)

Launch the graphical interface:

python src/gdiff.py

Or use the batch file:

gdiff.bat

Launch GUI with files pre-selected:

python src/gdiff.py file1.txt file2.txt

Or use the batch file:

gdiff.bat file1.txt file2.txt

Command Line Interface

Compare two files:

python src/cdiff.py file1.txt file2.txt

Or use the batch file:

cdiff.bat file1.txt file2.txt

CLI Options

python src/cdiff.py [options] file1 file2

Options:
  -h, --help            Show help message
  -w, --ignore-whitespace
                        Ignore whitespace differences
  -c CONTEXT, --context CONTEXT
                        Number of context lines to show (default: 3)
  --no-color            Disable colored output
  --width WIDTH         Output width (default: 120)
  -s, --stats           Show statistics

GUI Options

python src/gdiff.py [options] [file1] [file2]

Options:
  -h, --help            Show help message
  -w, --ignore-whitespace
                        Ignore whitespace differences (pre-set in GUI)
  file1                 First file to compare (optional)
  file2                 Second file to compare (optional)

Examples

1. Basic CLI comparison:

   cdiff.bat file1.txt file2.txt

2. CLI with ignore whitespace:

   cdiff.bat -w file1.txt file2.txt

3. CLI with statistics:

   cdiff.bat -s file1.txt file2.txt

4. CLI with custom width:

   cdiff.bat --width 100 file1.txt file2.txt

5. Launch GUI:

   gdiff.bat

6. Launch GUI with files pre-selected:

   gdiff.bat file1.txt file2.txt

Features in Detail

Side-by-Side View

• Files are displayed side-by-side for easy comparison
• Line numbers are shown for both files
• Changes are aligned properly for visual clarity

Color Coding

• Red: Deleted lines (only in left file)
• Green: Added lines (only in right file)
• Yellow: Changed lines (different in both files)
• Gray: Unchanged lines

GUI Features

• File browser for easy file selection
• Synchronized scrolling between panes
• Real-time statistics in status bar
• Ignore whitespace checkbox
• Resizable interface with proper scaling

CLI Features

• Colored terminal output (works on Windows)
• Configurable output width
• Context line control
• Statistics display
• Proper exit codes (0 for no differences, 1 for differences, 2 for errors)

Technical Details

Architecture

• diff_engine.py: Core comparison logic using Python's difflib
• cli.py: Command-line interface with colored output
• gui.py: Tkinter-based graphical interface
• main.py: Unified entry point for both interfaces

Dependencies

• colorama: Windows-compatible colored terminal output
• tkinter: GUI framework (usually included with Python)
• Python 3.7+: Required for type hints and modern features

File Support

• Text files: UTF-8 and Latin-1 encoding support
• Any file type: Basic text comparison works with any file
• Large files: Efficient memory usage with line-by-line processing

Adding to PATH (Optional)

To use cdiff and gdiff from anywhere on your system:

1. Add the diffTool directory to your Windows PATH environment variable
2. Or create .cmd files in a directory that's in your PATH:

   # cdiff.cmd
   @echo off
   "C:\path\to\diffTool\cdiff.bat" %*
   
   # gdiff.cmd
   @echo off
   "C:\path\to\diffTool\gdiff.bat" %*

Then you can use:

cdiff file1.txt file2.txt
gdiff file1.txt file2.txt
gdiff

Building Executable (Optional)

To create a standalone executable:

1. Install PyInstaller:

   pip install pyinstaller

2. Create executable:

   pyinstaller --onefile --windowed src/main.py

Troubleshooting

Python not found

• Ensure Python is installed and in your PATH
• Try python3 instead of python on some systems

Tkinter not available

• On Linux: sudo apt-get install python3-tk
• On Windows: Tkinter is usually included with Python

Colors not working

• Ensure colorama is installed: pip install colorama
• Use --no-color flag to disable colors

License

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.

Development & AI Context

For detailed development information, architecture decisions, and AI-assisted development context, see ai-context.md. This document contains:

• Complete development process and decisions
• Technical implementation details
• Testing results and known issues
• Future enhancement roadmap
• Code quality standards and deployment options

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit pull requests or report issues. Before contributing, please review the ai-context.md file for detailed technical context and development standards.

Future Enhancements

Based on the development roadmap in ai-context.md:

High Priority

• Syntax Highlighting: Add pygments integration for code files
• Word-level Differences: Highlight specific changed words within lines
• Directory Comparison: Compare entire directory structures
• Binary File Support: Handle binary files with hex comparison

Medium Priority

• Export Functionality: Save results to HTML/PDF
• Configuration Files: User-customizable settings
• Plugin System: Allow custom comparison algorithms
• Performance Optimization: Handle very large files more efficiently

Low Priority

• Integration with VCS: Git/SVN integration
• Network File Support: Compare files over network
• Backup/Restore: Integrated backup functionality
• Themes: Multiple color schemes