Are there any editors that allow you to see revisions of files you have worked on?

Question

I'm looking for an editor that lets me see all the changes I've made to a file on a line-by-line basis.

Answer 1

You'll need some sort of version control software to keep track of all your changes, and a diff/merge tool. Most of the popular version control systems (Subversion, TFS, Source Safe, etc.) come with a builtin visual diff tool.

For example with Java, you can use Eclipse with a Subversion plugin called Subclipse.

There are also standalone diff/merge tools available. Here's a good one for Windows:Winmerge

If you like Vim, there is a builtin difftool called vimdiff. (This would be an example of an editor with diff capabilities).

I'm sure Emacs also has diff tools available, but I wouldn't know.

Answer 2

By using a revision control program like Subversion/CVS/Git you can use any editor and run for example "svn diff".

Answer 3

There are no editors out there that saves revisions you made. Editors must connect to SVN in order to check their revision histories like in Zend Studio for Eclipse.

Answer 4

It is Eclipse. It also support multiple language by adding plugin. You can compare each change by comparing with local history. Only you have to take precaution, this tool won't help to revise the changes if you change the file other than eclipse editor.

Answer 5

Eclipse does this. It maintains a "local history" of every revision based on file-saves. Has saved my a** more than a few times.

Answer 6

Eclipse has a local history that gets updated every time you save a file. You can open a change log for the file and compare it to previous versions. It can also recover deleted files.

Apple's Xcode 3.x has a Project Snapshot feature that snapshots all files, so that you can compare and go back later.

As for using a "real" version control system, of course, you should do that, too. If you work in a group it is basically a must.

But that does not make local history tools provided by the editor obsolete. I see those more as a natural extension of Undo. Just like I cannot use Windows Notepad anymore because it has only one level of Undo, I am beginning to expect that editors let me undo changes that I made last week.

Answer 7

This is not exactly what you need but you may find it interesting.