plato global search and compare capabilities

Paul,

Since moving to Windows x64, I no longer have access to my favourite editor: ED4W Ver 3.8. This 16-bit program has two capabilities that I can not find in Plato: Global search : I can search a tree (including c:\), searching all fortran files (ext=.for,.f95,.ins), listing only the file names of files containing the text and the lines which contain a string. I think I can optionally exclude comments from the search. Compare 2 files : This compares two files for text differences, shading those groups of lines that are different. Both files are displayed in a split screen and you can step through each group of changes in either file.

I find these two facilities very useful, for example: locating all code which refers to a subroutine or variable and auditing the change between different versions of the same program.

Is there an equivalent in Plato ?

John

Plato has a global search but cannot exclude comments. Plato can compare two files but there is no shading of groups of lines.

Paul,

I have been using Plato recently, but still can not use the 2 file comparison tool. I do not know if you have seen ED4W V3.8, but it has (had as win_16 programs do not run on Win7) a very good file comparison utility. It highlighted changes by shading the differences and allowed stepping up or down the file between identified differences. I could certainly priovide a screen shot of ED's implementation.

This works very well when auditing changes to code, which I find an essential part of code development.

Are you able to provide either of these capabilities, or explain how they are already available in Plato, as I was not able to find an explaination in the documentation.

John

At the moment Plato only points to lines that differ. It does not shade the differences nor does it provide automatic merging. For that purpose I currently use WinMerge.exe.

I can add this to the wish list. It would be an interesting exercise.

Paul,

I have not yet been able to use Plato's file comparison utility effectively to step through changes. As also discussed as an auditing tool, comparing changes to code typically involves only small changes to the code structure. For this, changing the background colour is very effective to identify where changes have been made. I've now forgotten the stepping control ( alt up_arrow and alt down_arrow ?) for steping to the start or end of the next change, in either selected file window. This provides a quick and easy review. I'd recommend this functionality for a future release of Plato.

John

ps: an option of ignoring leading spaces for line comparisons (changing the indent in code) can also help.

OK