thommcgrath
Show diff of changes on export/deploy
It'd be great if the app could show a diff of what has changed in the config since the last export or deploy so I can make sure I didn't accidentally change something I shouldn't have.
I really like this idea and have wanted to put it into Beacon for a while, but I don't have a way to actually show the results. I'll leave this open just in case something changes in the future, but I don't think this is one that I'll likely be able to implement.
My thought was during the deploy, have an option to "show changes" or "show diff" that displays the standard diff output (lines prefixed + for added, - removed, etc.). I don't know about xojo, but Python and Javascript both have libraries available for generating the diffs (python javascript).
I do have a library for generating the text-based diffs, but those are too difficult to read for the average user. It's possible in a pinch, but not good enough that I'd actually want it for a feature. Beacon 1.6 will be using the Scintilla text editor, so it's plausible I could brute-force some line coloring to produce something similar to GitHub's diffs. Ideally I'd want a side-by-side, but that's not realistically going to happen.
I do have a library for generating the text-based diffs, but those are too difficult to read for the average user. It's possible in a pinch, but not good enough that I'd actually want it for a feature. Beacon 1.6 will be using the Scintilla text editor, so it's plausible I could brute-force some line coloring to produce something similar to GitHub's diffs. Ideally I'd want a side-by-side, but that's not realistically going to happen.
I was thinking about it, and I think "simple" line with "Name | Old | New" would be enough. Just make it look like actual edit, but with two disabled form inputs?
On a similar note, what I would really love (wasn't sure if I should make a new Issue for that) is to be able to hide unchanged values for easier management. Sometimes I simply want to check what was changed. This would help with General Settings the most. Especially with mods like Super Structures etc.
Hiding unchanged lines is actually a pretty good idea for something easy to implement with a big impact.