Best graphical source code diff viewer/editor for code comparison and merging?

Question

The options for source code diff viewing/editing/merging seem to be:

Free:

• Tortoise Merge
• Meld *
• WinDiff
• WinMerge *
• DiffMerge *
• KDiff
• AJC Diff
• Diffuse

Commercial:

• Total Commander's Diff viewer *
• Beyond Compare *
• Delta Walker *
• Araxis Merge *

Are there any other options? (Wikipedia suggests a few)

What's your favorite tools for source code diff? And how does it differ from the ones in the list?

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* Supports directory diffs

Answer 1

I use meld.

Answer 2

I use SourceGear DiffMerge, doesn't do anything awe inspiring (although the directory compare is quite nice) but I really like the interface for it.

Answer 3

I use WinMerge and have been very happy with it.

CompareIt is good as well, but non-free.

Answer 4

Also check out KDiff3

Answer 5

There are plenty of diff tools around. I've search for one that runs on all three major plattforms (Linux, Mac, Windows) and found "DeltaWalker" from Deltopia.

The tool is based on eclipse and has all the bells and whistles you need at a normal developers day.

It's a commercial tool, but I think it is worth the money.

Answer 6

I use AJCDiff which I like a lot, not free but at $15 it's not exactly going to break the bank either. Reason I like it is that it can compare text, binaries, images and word docs. Doesn't do the directory thing mind you; horses for course I guess.

Answer 7

I really like Beyond Compare, it has a lot of nice features and is often very accurate.

Answer 8

I use WinDiff. It can compares folders or files as you want, but only one option at a time. This tool is enough for me.

Answer 9

Diffuse is also free. It is the only tool I know of that does n-way merges (not limited to 2-way and 3-way merges). It also allows alignment to be manually overridden, has in-line editing, syntax highlighting, Unicode support, and easy keyboard navigation. It can also retrieve revisions of files directly from Bazaar, CVS, Darcs, Git, Mercurial, Monotone, Subversion, and SVK repositories.

Answer 10

Beyond Compare is definitely a candidate to be tested if you are looking for to top of the line. From Scooter software

Answer 11

Been using ExamDiff for years on my PC.

I've just discovered Diffuse after installing Ubuntu 9.04 on a virtual machine, thinking about putting that on Windows as well now.

Answer 12

vimdiff

Doesn't do directory comparisons, but I have the full power of vi at my fingertips.

$ vim -d /etc/skel/.bashrc ~/.bashrc
  # ~/.bashrc: executed by bash(1) for »|  # ~/.bashrc: executed by bash(1) for»
  # see /usr/share/doc/bash/examples/st»|  # see /usr/share/doc/bash/examples/s»
  # for examples                        |  # for examples
                                        |
  --------------------------------------|  # Use Fink if it exists
  --------------------------------------|  root=/sw; [[ -d $root ]] && . $root/»
  --------------------------------------|
  # If not running interactively, don't»|  # If not running interactively, don'»
  [ -z "$PS1" ] && return               |  [ -z "$PS1" ] && return
                                        |
  # don't put duplicate lines in the hi»|  # don't put duplicate lines in the h»
  # don't overwrite GNU Midnight Comman»|  # don't overwrite GNU Midnight Comma»
  export HISTCONTROL=$HISTCONTROL${HIST»|  #export HISTCONTROL=$HISTCONTROL${HI»
  # ... or force ignoredups and ignores»|  # ... or force ignoredups and ignore»
  export HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth         |  export HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth
  --------------------------------------|  export HISTFILESIZE=50000
  --------------------------------------|  export HISTSIZE=50000
                                        |
  # append to the history file, don't o»|  # append to the history file, don't »
  shopt -s histappend                   |  shopt -s histappend
                                        |
  # for setting history length see HIST»|  # for setting history length see HIS»
/etc/skel/.bashrc [RO]1,1            Top .bashrc              1,1            Top
"~/.bashrc" 112L, 3478C

Answer 13

How about using vim :P

http://blog.objectmentor.com/articles/2008/04/30/vim-as-a-diff-merge-tool