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> I don't know what happens if you get your proprietary-format tool to
> dump to a text format -- RTF, MIF, HTML, ... -- and apply diff there.
> It "should" "just work", but I suspect there'd be some problems.
RAISES HAND...I know, I know!
Its ugly to use diff on a RTF file generated by Word. The problem is
that one little change (un-bold some text) will generate all sorts of
RTF changes. I don't know much about RTF, so I can't comment as to why.
However, text diffing isn't reliable on text files generated from
proprietary formats. Stick with the proprietary diffing tools for
proprietary files. Just my opinion, of course ;)
Now -- to provide some solid value here: Sandy suggested Cygwin
(http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin) wich is an excellent tool/set of
tools. Cygwin puts a Unix shell on your Windows machine. For those of
you only mildly interested in Linux and Unix, check Cygwin out!
Something about the power of 'sed' (a way-powerful search-and-replace
tool) combined with 'grep' (look for *this* text in *these* files) has
made my life much easier.
Meg, who learned about diffing Word-generated RTF files by trying 'cvs
diff my_word_doc.rtf' and reading lots of spew when all she changed was
one "line" in Word.
--
Megan Golding (mgolding -at- secureworks -dot- net)
SecureWorks, Inc.
Make your life a mission - not an intermission.
-- Arnold Glasgow
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