Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: arch with 'special files'

[Cameron Patrick]

Andrew Suffield wrote:

> > I believe there is some kind of xml-diff, that compares the trees, not
> > the text ;-). One such is built into openoffice...
> 
> Yes, but there's no corresponding patch tool, nor can there be (any
> more than there can for xdelta), since XML is semantically null and
> syntactically useless.

There is indeed a patch tool.  Take a peek at

        http://tdm.berlios.de/3dm/doc/index.html

and the corresponding research paper

        http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/lindholm01way.html

You're kind of right though - the patch tool described in that paper
does not handle inexact patching well.  However, it does describe a
3-way merge algorithm, which it claims to be useful for revision
control and file synchronisation.  It might be feasible to adapt that
algorithm into a more sane patch format which _does_ support inexact
patching.

Microsoft also has an XML diff tool, but it's mostly uninteresting as
it doesn't appear to support either inexact patching or 3-way merges.
There also seems to be no description of the algorithm or any
implementation available other than an MS Windows binary.  Bleh.

Cameron

signature.asc
Description: Digital signature