Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 4/5] Make boundary characters for --color-words configurable

From: Jakub Narebski <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 04 May 2008 13:47:28 -0700 (PDT)

Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]> writes:

> Let's step back a bit and try to clarify the problem with a bit of
> illustration.
> 
> The motivation behind "word diff" is because line oriented diff is
> sometimes unwieldy.
> 
>     -Hello world.
>     +Hi, world.
[...]
> We instead can do this word by word (note that I am doing this as a
> thought experiment, to illustrate what the problem is and what should
> conceptually happen, not suggesting this particular implementation):
> 
>     preimage        postimage       word-diff
>     48656c6c6f                      -48656c6c6f Hello
>                     4869            +4869       Hi
>                     2c              +2c         ,
>     20              20               20         ' '
>     776f726c64      776f726c64       776f726c64 world      
>     2e              2e               2e         .
>     0a              0a               0a         '\n'
> 
> Which would give you "/Hello/Hi,/ world.\n".

Would it be possible instead of in-line word diff, use word coloring
to enhance traditional diff format?  Something like

     -/Hello/ world.
     +/Hi,/ world.

(We could use bold, or reverse for marking changed fragment, or use
color only for changed fragment).

IMHO current output is nice, unless you have long lines and not very
wide screen...
-- 
Jakub Narebski
Poland
ShadeHawk on #git