Friday, June 13, 2008

WinDiff

For me, one of the most frustrating things about using Windows is the lack of simple utilities that come standard with just about any Linux/UNIX distribution. One utility that I have been missing lately is the good ol' "diff" command. In essence, diff answers the question, "Are these two [or more] files the same, and, if not, what's the difference between them?" If you spend anytime working in a shell environment, it's very likely that you've come to rely on diff.

So, I started thinking, "there is a WinGrep (which I've posted about before), so I wonder if there is a program called 'WinDiff.'" Well, a quick Google search shows that there is! I haven't gotten to try out WinDiff yet, but I will certainly install it on my XP box and check it out. WinGrep is a nice app, minus the fact that it's only available in GUI form, and I suspect that WinDiff will be a similar experience.

WinDiff is a Microsoft utility app that comes along with a larger resource kit of tools. You can find the individual app here:

http://www.grigsoft.com/download-windiff.htm

--Chris

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