v24: DIFFzilla no longer remembers window positions and state

[sigmund]

I *love* the DIFFzilla speed-up for multi-file diffs with directories containing many files.

However, there are unfortunately also a few regressions for DIFFzilla released with v24 of SlickEdit:

• The window position and maximized state is not remembered for the Multi-File Diff window.
• The window position and maximized state is not remembered for the DIFFzilla Pro window after hitting Alt+D for a file in multi-file diff.
• Multi-file diff seems to be about one second slower when there are few files to diff.
• The first file to diff is not automatically selected, so one cannot hit Alt+D right away to start diffing.

It would also be nice if DIFFzilla could understand trailing forward slashes so that I could get rid of this hack in my .gitconfig file (this is not a regression):

Code: [Select]

[diff]
tool = vsdiff
[difftool "vsdiff"]
cmd = 'C:/Program Files/SlickEdit Pro 24.0.0/win/vsdiff.exe' $LOCAL../left $REMOTE../right

Without "../left" and "../right", I get a SlickEdit error dialog that says: "Error in Path 1".  If I replace the cmd with echo $LOCAL $REMOTE, then I get this output which makes it clear why the hack is working:

Code: [Select]

C:\Users\VikS\AppData\Local\Temp\git-difftool.a23132/left/ C:\Users\VikS\AppData\Local\Temp\git-difftool.a23132/right/
Here is my "About SlickEdit" output:

Code: [Select]

SlickEdit Pro 2019 (v24.0.0.8 64-bit)

Serial number: WB943076
Licensed number of users: Single user
License file: C:\ProgramData\slickedit\24\slickedit.lic

Build Date: October 2, 2019
Emulation: CUA

OS: Windows 10 x64
OS Version: 10.00.0 
Memory: 45% Load, 14875MB/32648MB Physical, 19048MB/37512MB Page File, 5543MB/134217727MB Virtual
Shell Information: C:\tools\JPSoft\TCMD25\tcc.exe /LD /LH
Screen Size: 1920 x 1080, 1920 x 1080

Project Type: Microsoft Visual Studio Csharp
Language: .gitconfig (Plain Text)
Encoding: Automatic

Installation Directory: C:\Program Files\SlickEdit Pro 24.0.0\ (non-removable drive,NTFS,87703MB free)
Configuration Directory: C:\Users\VikS\Documents\My SlickEdit Config\24.0.0\ (non-removable drive,NTFS,87703MB free)
Migrated from: C:\Users\VikS\Documents\My SlickEdit Config\23.0.2\


[Dan]

I'm glad you noticed the performance enhancement.

I'll look into why it's losing it's position.

The first file not being automatically selected is because it's done asynchronously, and I overlooked the need to do select an item once there is one in the tree.

I can probably fix the forward slash issue because the editor supports them most places.  It's probably doing an overzealous check for a valid filename.

I should be able to get these fixed.  I don't know for sure if it will be a hotfix or have to wait until 24.0.1.

[Dan]

I can't reproduce the first 3 of these.  Is this when running DIFFzilla from the editor, or using vsdiff?

[sigmund]

From the command line, run vsdiff dir1 dir2 to recursively compare all the files in two directories.  Before, the "Multi-File Diff" window that was displayed would remember its maximized state.  Similarly, when selecting a file and hitting Alt+D, the DIFFzilla Pro window being displayed would also respect its previous state.

Whenever I run a directory diff now, the first thing I have to do is hit Windows+Arrow-up to maximize the "Multi-File Diff" dialog, and then hit Windows+Arrow-up again after Alt+D to maximize the DIFFzilla Pro window.  Before I did not have to do this.

[Dan]

OK.  I'm not sure if I can select the first item because the user could have changed it while it is still running.

[sigmund]

Why cannot the "Multi-File Diff" window and the DIFFzilla Pro window behave the same way as e.g. the SlickEdit window with regards to respecting the previous window position/maximized state?  They used to do that, and I see no reason why this should no longer be the case.

[Dan]

I suspect that it just didn't get restored because there's a different code path to launch the dialog.  I'll take care of it.

[Dan]

This is fixed for the next hotfix and 24.0.1.

[sigmund]

Excellent, thank you

[sigmund]

Why cannot the "Multi-File Diff" window and the DIFFzilla Pro window behave the same way as e.g. the SlickEdit window with regards to respecting the previous window position/maximized state?  They used to do that, and I see no reason why this should no longer be the case.

This is still not working with SlickEdit v25.0.0.8.

[Dan]

This fixed for the next hotfix.

[sigmund]

With Windows 11 and SlickEdit v26.0.1.0, multi-file diff no longer remember the diff window maximized state from the previous run

(Edit: This also applies to non-multi-file diffs.)

[Dan]

From SlickEdit or vsdiff?  I'm not able to reproduce this in 26.0.1 on Windows 11.

[sigmund]

It happens when running vsdiff from the command line.  It does not happen when using vsdiff in the SlickEdit Backup History.  See attached screenshots.  Btw. DIFFzilla has lots of room for improvements when it comes to showing consistent diffs across lines and more often than not it fails to identify indentation-only changes (which is super frustrating), I have posted about this before but the attached screenshots illustrate inconsistent diffs across lines.

[Dan]

I'll look into the issue with the placement.

On the indent issue, are you talking about files like this, or source code?  This is what Source Diff was made to do, but there are other things we could set up that will help for examples like this.