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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!okstate.UUCP!ea.UUCP!jejones
From: jejones@ea.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.wanted.sources
Subject: twiddling diff's compare function
Message-ID: <84900002@ea.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 30-Dec-85 12:05:00 EST
Article-I.D.: ea.84900002
Posted: Mon Dec 30 12:05:00 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 3-Jan-86 01:45:29 EST
Lines: 16
Nf-ID: #N:ea.UUCP:84900002:000:767
Nf-From: ea.UUCP!jejones    Dec 30 11:05:00 1985


I found myself the other day having to compare a couple of files of
assembly-language source.  They weren't related purely ancestrally,
because I'd "improved" the commentary in my version, so that when I
ran (the closest thing I had to) diff on them, a lot of purely cosmetic
tweakings (fixes to misspellings, etc.) showed up that I had to filter
out myself.

So, here's the $2**6 question:  has anyone done for diff what got done
for sort, i.e. let the user select just what it is he wishes to use as
the criterion/criteria for two lines being "the same?"  It strikes me
as an obvious hack, and not hard to do.  ("So why don't you do it?" you
ask...well, I don't have source to diff.  I'm quite liable to hack what
I *do* have source to, though.)

						James Jones