Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Encoding handling proposal

[Marcus Sundman]

On Monday 30 August 2004 01:09, Charles Duffy wrote:
> Hmm -- being able to view the difference between two files in a way
> sensitive to their type without being able to apply those changes in a
> way sensitive to the file type seems like rather a waste.

Yes, but that doesn't mean the patch file format has to be different, just 
that it has to be flexible enough to accomodate a wide range of situations. 
E.g. a diff tool for java source code might notice that a 20 line method 
you moved hasn't changed at all, so it might write a patch file saying that 
the corresponding byte range is moved to another offset. A generic text 
diff tool on the other hand might make a patch file saying 20 lines have 
been removed and 20 new lines have been introduced at another offset. The 
latter patch file would be a lot larger than the former, but that doesn't 
mean they would have to have different formats.


- Marcus Sundman