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

Hi,

On Sun, 4 May 2008, Jakub Narebski wrote:

Junio C Hamano [off-list ref] writes:

quoted

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.

[...]

quoted

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...

-S ;-)

IIRC the code to display was not too complicated for the current mode, so 
it should be relatively simple for the mode you desire.

But first let's agree on the semantics of the "tokens", as Junio calls 
them, okay?

Ciao,
Dscho