Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2020 November 16

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November 16

How do I find a diff?

It would be easy if the two slightly different lists were on Wikipedia, but they aren't. I don't think I'm allowed to put the lists in a Wikipedia sandbox to look at the history. I seem to recall asking if there was a tool available that would let me see diffs in the real world.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 23:50, 16 November 2020 (UTC)

Vchimpanzee, what platform? Elizium23 (talk) 23:50, 16 November 2020 (UTC)

I saved an email draft that I am sending to myself eventually. I want to compare it to a list I posted on a message board. I wanted to tell people how much I have added to the list since I first posted. Also, there was text in another email that I sent myself when AOL was down and I couldn't access another draft that I wanted to print. I want to compare the draft I recreated from shorter emails and make sure I printed the entire draft.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 23:58, 16 November 2020 (UTC)

Vchimpanzee, so yeah... what platform - OS, version? Elizium23 (talk) 00:00, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Windows 10, Microsoft Edge. That's about all I know. I'm leaving for the day.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 00:07, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Vchimpanzee, WinMerge will do what you want, as long as you are competent to extract the text from your email, wherever it may live and whatever file formats are involved. Please note that diffs require text files and you can't easily diff Microsoft Word or even Rich Text Format files. Unicode is supported by this tool. Elizium23 (talk) 00:19, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

If you have a copy of Word, comparing two word (or RTF) documents is pretty easy using its Review/Compare functionality.--Phil Holmes (talk) 08:38, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Word changes everything. I have something on my computer called WordPad. But if I use Word, that means a trip to the library where they have Chrome and that's all I know.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:31, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

It's not working for me to copy at home.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:44, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Actually, it wasn't working for me to do the email that I printed. The lists are saved. One is "ipod" and the other is "radio". These are now saved as files on my computer and I want to compare them.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:44, 17 November 2020 (UTC)

Vchimpanzee, have you verified that they are text files? What is their file extension? Have you downloaded and installed WinMerge? Elizium23 (talk) 01:37, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

Any windows system will already have FC installed. Just save the two files (as plain text) to the same directory. Open a DOS box (command window) and go to that directory. Type the command FC file1.txt file2.txt — GhostInTheMachine ^{talk to me} 11:09, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

All I get are web results. I have no idea what any of this means. And the files are called "radio" and "ipod". That's all I know.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 17:01, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

Paste one of the lists into your sandbox and save it. Then let us know — GhostInTheMachine ^{talk to me} 18:31, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

Well, in this case it's not a copyright violation. The other information is.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 23:31, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

And it turns out it's still not easy to see what I added.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 23:36, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

Now edit the same sandbox. Paste in the other list. Do NOT save it, select Show Changes instead — GhostInTheMachine ^{talk to me} 23:41, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

I'm afraid even Wikipedia's ability to show diffs is limited.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 23:58, 18 November 2020 (UTC)

You will have to post the second list as well, we cannot stop now! — GhostInTheMachine ^{talk to me} 09:08, 19 November 2020 (UTC)

I posted the first list, actually. And the second list is now incomplete as I've added a bunch of songs to the email draft just today. Someone told me about WHVN.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 22:31, 19 November 2020 (UTC)