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External CVS Diff [message #683284]

Mon, 13 June 2011 12:48

Fat Bear Incorporated

Messages: 5
Registered: July 2010
Location: Raleigh, NC

Junior Member

I want to use Vim diff for CVS diffing. Why? Mostly because I can work much faster in Vim with my many custom functions than in any mouse-intensive editor. But, the motivation really isn't the important thing and, please, let's just focus on the "how" and not the "why". Smile

Has anyone figured out how to invoke an external diff tool that compares (at least) the edited version of the file against the head version in CVS?

Steve Amerige, Fat Bear Incorporated
Web Engineering | Graphic Design | Creative Marketing
Website, Java, and Source-Code Hosting

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Re: External CVS Diff [message #683475 is a reply to message #683284]

Mon, 13 June 2011 20:28

Paul Webster

Messages: 6859
Registered: July 2009
Location: Ottawa

Senior Member

If you know how to issue the command line to get the compare you want, you can then create an External Launch config to execute that command line. When creating the external launch config, you have the option of using eclipse variables as arguments which should let you pick the file.

PW

Paul Webster
http://wiki.eclipse.org/Platform_Command_Framework
http://wiki.eclipse.org/Command_Core_Expressions
http://wiki.eclipse.org/Menu_Contributions

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Re: External CVS Diff [message #683509 is a reply to message #683475]

Mon, 13 June 2011 22:18

Fat Bear Incorporated

Messages: 5
Registered: July 2010
Location: Raleigh, NC

Junior Member

Thanks for the feedback.

As workarounds for "missing" functionality goes, I'm currently using the BeyondCVS Eclipse plugin. This plugin allows one to invoke a diff tool directly from the Eclipse GUI with just one mouse click. Of course, they're hoping it will be their diff tool. But, you can use the update site to install only the external diff tool launcher and never need to install their diff tool. I point it to a bat file that is nothing more than "gvim -d %1 %2".

The External Launch config suffers from multiple mouse motions needed to do something. And, there is no apparent way to assign keyboard shortcuts to the various external tools that I'd like to launch. That's a pet peeve of mine. Why not allow us to map shortcuts?!

Anyway, the web page is beyondcvs.sourceforge.net for those who are looking for the same workaround that I'm presently using. The instructions show the update site.

But, I'd still prefer Eclipse to adopt a more "open" philosophy and allow people to choose their own diff software, just like they can presently do with opening files.

Steve Amerige, Fat Bear Incorporated
Web Engineering | Graphic Design | Creative Marketing
Website, Java, and Source-Code Hosting

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Re: External CVS Diff [message #683813 is a reply to message #683509]

Tue, 14 June 2011 13:19

Paul Webster

Messages: 6859
Registered: July 2009
Location: Ottawa

Senior Member

Someone that wants "pluggable external diff viewer" (like you Smile

has to write it, if they want that to be pluggable.

However, with a small plugin of your own, you could bind shortcuts to specific external launch configurations and alleviate some of your immediate pain.

See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6015510/eclipse-put-keyboard-shortcuts-on-specific-launch-configurations/6017274#6017274

PW

Paul Webster
http://wiki.eclipse.org/Platform_Command_Framework
http://wiki.eclipse.org/Command_Core_Expressions
http://wiki.eclipse.org/Menu_Contributions

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Re: External CVS Diff [message #685330 is a reply to message #683813]

Fri, 17 June 2011 09:33

Tomasz Zarna

Messages: 172
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

Breadcrumbs

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