Diff Viewer

The Pragtical code editor includes a Built-in Diff Viewer designed to help developers quickly visualize, navigate, and synchronize differences between files or strings.

It is ideal for reviewing changes, understanding history, and synchronizing edits, all without leaving Pragtical!

Features

Whether you're comparing two strings, reviewing changes in a file, or inspecting commit history via source control, the diff viewer provides a fast and intuitive interface to understand code changes.

• Side-by-Side Diff View Visual comparison of two files, strings or combination of both with synchronized scrolling.

• Effortless Navigation Jump between differences using keyboard shortcuts or mouse navigation.

• Line-Level and Inline Diffs Highlights exact changes, whether it's an entire line or a single character.

• Synchronize Differences Merge changes across views or apply edits manually based on comparison.

• Source Control Integration Extended functionality when used with the built-in Source Control Management

  • Compare the current file to a previous version in your commit history.
  • View unstaged vs. working changes before committing.

• Compare Any Input Launch diffs between:

  • Project files
  • Snippets of code
  • Any file on your system

Usage

There are different ways to open the Diff Viewer:

1. From the Command Palette: Press ctrl+shift+p and search for diff-view:start-files-comparison or diff-view:start-strings-comparison.

2. Right-click the File Explorer (TreeView): In the explorer, right-click a file and select Select for Compare. Then right click another file and select Compare with Selected

3. Right-click Selected Text: In a document, right-click a text selection and select Select Text for Compare. Then right click another text selection and select Compare Text with Selected

4. Source Control Manager: With SCM installed, click on any changed file to compare it against the previous state, or navigate its commit history, right click any entry and select the Compare with Current option.

5. API: Plugins can programmatically launch the diff viewer using Pragtical’s Lua API.

Available Commands:

Name	Description
diff-view:start-files-comparison	Start a new files comparison
diff-view:start-strings-comparison	Start a strings comparison where you can put any string in
diff-view:prev-change	Navigate to previous change
diff-view:next-change	Navigate to next change
diff-view:sync-change	Send changes from active document to the other
diff-view:select-file-for-compare	Select active document for a comparison
diff-view:compare-file-with-selected	Compare active document with previously selected
diff-view:select-text-for-compare	Select highlighted text for a comparison
diff-view:compare-text-with-selected	Compare selected text with previous selection

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Next difference	ctrl+alt+.
Previous difference	ctrl+alt+,
Sync changes	ctrl+return

Api Usage Example

You can easily compare any two open files. For example:

local diffview = require "plugins.diffview"

-- Files
diffview.file_to_file("src/old.ext", "src/new.ext")

-- Strings
diffview.string_to_string("some text", "some more text")

-- String / File
diffview.string_to_file("some text", "src/file.ext")

-- File / String
diffview.file_to_string("src/file.ext", "some text")

For additional details check the diff api docs which contain the refenreces to the C backend and diffviewer api docs.