diff/merge tool for TortoiseSVN within Visual Studio

Question

Hi. We've recently "upgraded" from Visual SourceSafe to SVN based on recommendations on this site. Our current source control set-up is: TortoiseSVN with VisualSVN. We're very happy with it so far, but I was wondering if there's any additional benefits from using a different diff/merge tool than the one included (TortoiseMerge).

TortoiseMerge seems pretty capable, but also quite a bit slower than VSS's "View History" tool.

This excellent thread shows a lot of different things: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/940464/what-tools-do-you-guys-use-when-integrating-with-subversion-on-windows

WinMerge and BeyondCompare are both mentioned in that thread, but we're mainly interested in diffs.

Are there any good reasons to change up from TortoiseMerge, even for the purpose of quicker diffs?

Thanks.

Answer 1

I exclusively use BeyondCompare for diffing and merging. The fact that it understands different file formats via plugins makes it very compelling for me. For instance, if you have graphics stored in svn, BeyondCompare can show you an XOR-based difference of the images. Pretty slick!

Oh as for speed, I find it quite speedy on my systems.

Answer 2

WinMerge does diffs as well, and I personally prefer it over TortoiseMerge.

Answer 3

I really like how Araxis Merge does the diffs, and prefer it over TortoiseMerge. I'm a very visually inclined person, and I prefer Araxis Merge's visual representation over WinMerge and BeyondCompare.

Araxis Merge can also be used with TortoiseSVN for diff, merges, and applying patches.

Answer 4

I posted a few years ago how to use SourceGear's Vault's DiffMerge tool. It's very clean, and similar to VSS's style from way back in the day.

http://eduncan911.com/blog/living-with-subversion-part-3.aspx

The other answers here have a number of other great suggests as well.

But more recently, I have learned to like the built-in TortoiseMerge for the single reason that I can edit the merged file directly while merging. Seems other merge tools didn't allow me to edit the merging file in real time. I had to merge, save, and open manually.