Merging files
Merging files in DeltaWalker is easy and accurate thanks to:
- Contextual merge buttons.
- Powerful text editors offering natural in-place editing.
- Automatic re-comparison performed in the background as you edit the files.
- Unlimited undo/redo.
- Accurate and fast text comparison engine.
DeltaWalker communicates the differences between text documents by drawing colored rectangles around the blocks of text that have been deleted, added, that match but have differences, or that match but have conflicting differences in the case of three-way comparison.
Reconciliation such differences usually involves:
- Replacing a difference in one file with a difference from another.
- Inserting/copying a difference from one file into the other.
- Deleting a difference.
DeltaWalker's contextual merge buttons offer you precisely that functionality—they appear at the moment you hover over a difference. Their functionality and appearance changes when you hold down the Command, or the Command+Shift keys.
DeltaWalker Oro supports automatic three-way file merge where two files are compared against a common ancestor and their differences are first detected and highlighted in reference to that ancestor, then merged into the ancestor. Automatic merge of non-conflicting differences is powerful, yet conceptually simple: it walks through all differences between the ancestor and the derivative works, i.e. the first and the second file, and merges all non-conflicting differences one-by-one into the common ancestor. Conflicting differences, highlighted accordingly, are left intact and brought to your attention for manual resolution.
Three-way file comparison and automatic merge are designed to offer you a common sense, visual approach to solving a non-trivial problem—analyzing and reconciling the differences between two sets of different changes made to a common file.
Synchronizing folders
Synchronizing folders is powered by a flexible set of selection options and copy/move/delete operations. All synchronization operations execute on dedicated threads, leaving DeltaWalker's user interface responsive at all times. Sensitive and potentially dangerous operations, such as deleting files, leverage the same protection that Windows itself offers in such cases—they are moved to Recycle Bin, as opposed to permanently deleted.
Synchronizing a pair of folders comes down to executing one of more simple actions—selecting, copying, moving, and deleting files. Synchronization operations are context sensitive, that is, they are performed only on the resources you've selected, therefore they are only accessible through the folder comparison context-sensitive menu.
Automatic thee-way folder synchronization (Oro Edition only) offers for folders what automatic three-way merge offers for files—the ability to reconcile the differences between two folder hierarchies into a common ancestor with ease and confidence in the final result.