Re: diff --brief and --binary

[Bob Proulx]

JT Williams <address@hidden> [2002-08-08 07:46:04 -0500]:
> diff --q (--brief) forces a binary comparison.
> 
> This is confusing, because one doesn't expect -q (a reporting option)
> to influence the type of comparison (binary/text).

I think the confusion might be surrounding the word 'binary'.  Used
here I believe it refers only to diff doing a 'cmp' type of
comparision and not producing any differences to the output.  It only
tells you if the files were different and reports the boolean value
true or false that the files were the same or different.

The language saying forcing a binary comparison is colloquial in
meaning and has little to do with the MS definition of binary/text.
However, in that context a binary comparison is still strictly
correct.

Trying to write very concise statements for the online help that are
clear and unambiguous is a very hard thing to do across the thousands
of options of all of the programs available.

Bob