TextDiff V4.5    Suggested by TPFC Fan - Added on 18 Jul 2009 829KB (uncompressed) - Popularity score (536) Website - Screenshot - Download - Comments (3) - Post comment - Permalink

Posted comments:

 mhack: im a programmer & it helps me a lot..
this tiny app rocks! [2009-07-19 03:08]

 r: Would be great if it created .diff files as well! [2009-07-20 21:07]

 Gord Hines: I'm a genealogist. I began a new day's work. Somehow, inadvertently and unknowingly, my software program had retrieved what turned out to be a 2-week old backup copy of my genealogy database. I had entered data [no media or images, luckily] for 35 new and modified persons. Plus, I had added and then deleted 3 persons that I'd placed in the wrong family. Deleting in many genealogy software programs is a tricky and potentially error-prone procedure fraught with unintended and often hidden side-effects... so I was ever-so-careful. As I was about to copy over the previous day's backup copy, Windows XP informed me that the newer file was 100MB smaller!!! than the older file (11.2MB). Fortunately, I caught the difference and stopped. Although still unaware of the true cause of my error, I realized I needed some way to compare the two files to see what inadvertent deletion had occurred... I pondered the problem and various solution options for about 4 days until today! I serendipitously tumbled across TextDiff today while looking into an old email archiving problem. TextDiff was immediately obvious as the solution to my genealogy dilemma. All genealogy programs can export their databases in a text format called GEDCOM (.GED). I simply exported, as GED text files, the custom databases from the smaller (newer) file and also from the larger (older) file.... I used TextDiff and readily determined the exact set of data mismatches between the two files... In particular, I saw the true nature of my error (i.e adding new data to a much older [and smaller sized] backup file -- in fact, I had deleted the 3 persons correctly)... I was able to easily identify the 35 individuals I'd added to or modified in the older file. Now, I have before me the task of re-entering the data for those 35 persons in the custom database... made somewhat easier by being able to copy/paste from TextDiff into my genealogy program. It is still a lot of work... but nothing like trying to reproduce a day's effort of web-based genealogy research (that often wanders randomly and capriciously with new discoveries) and the transferring of those web-research results on-the-fly into one's genealogy program [i.e. with no paper copy].

Without TextDiff, almost any other solution would have involved far, far more work.... and greater risks of creating more errors in the database.

Thank you Angus Johnson for creating TextDiff -- and for making it freeware!! // Gord Hines [2009-08-16 05:12]

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