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- ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 1. Contrast ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
-
- Contrast compares two files on disk and notes lines that are common to both. A
- bar chart is drawn, giving an overall view of which lines match, and the text
- of either file, or a composite file, is displayed. The default view is the
- composite file.
-
-
- ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 2. Open Dialog ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
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- The Open dialog supplies lists of files and directories from which the source
- files can be selected. The full path of the file is made by concatenating the
- file name to the directory, so you can type subdirectories in the name field if
- you want. '..' means the parent directory. If the name of File B is null, the
- name from File A is used.
-
-
- ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 3. Problem Message Box ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
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- The Problem message box informs the user of a problem in the program. This may
- or may not be fatal. The user is required to acknowledge the message; the
- program will take appropriate action.
-
-
- ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 4. File Menu ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
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- The File menu contains the following items:
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- Open
- Allows new source files to be opened.
- Exit
- Closes the Contrast program.
-
-
- ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 5. Help Menu ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
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- The Help menu contains the following items:
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- Help for help
- Explains the use of the help functions.
- Extended help
- Displays general help on the Contrast program.
- Keys help
- Displays help on the keys that can be used in the Contrast program.
- Help index
- Displays a list of selectable help topics.
- About
- Displays the application logo.
-
-
- ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 6. Keys for Contrast ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
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- The Contrast program assigns the following special functions to keys:
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- Alt+O
- Bring up the Open dialog.
- F3
- Exit the Contrast program.
- Alt+A
- Alt+B
- Display file A or B
- Alt+C
- Display the composite file
- Alt+L
- Alt+T
- Alt+I
- Ignore leading, trailing, or all blanks for line comparison. Use the
- Options menu to see the current status.
- Alt+U
- Display lines unique to either source file interleaved, as opposed to
- alternately.
- Alt+D
- Bring up the Define Colours dialog.
- Alt+F
- Bring up the Fonts dialog.
- Arrow keys
- Scroll the displayed file by one character.
- Page Up
- Page Down
- Scroll the file by the height of the text window.
-
-
- ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 7. View Menu ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
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- The View menu changes the text displayed. This can be either of the source
- files, or the composite file.
-
-
- ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 8. Options Menu ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
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- The Options menu contains the following items:
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- Ignore leading blanks
- Re-contrasts the files, with white space (i.e. spaces, tabs or nulls) at
- the beginning of lines ignored. Any formatting of programs will thus be
- irrelevent.
- Ignore trailing blanks
- Ignores white space at the end of lines. Some editors can be inconsistent
- about leaving this in files.
- Ignore all blanks
- Disregards all white space, wherever it is in the files. This is useful
- for comparing programs in free-format languages, especially if differing
- editors have been used.
- Interleave unique lines
- Orders unmatching blocks in the composite file so that lines from files A
- and B alternate. If this option is off, unmatching blocks will displayed
- as whole blocks from file A or B.
- Define colours used
- Allows user definition of the colours used by Contrast.
- Set font used
- Changes the font and style used for the text display.
-
-
- ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 9. Bar Chart ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
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- The bar chart is a graphical representation of the two source files. Blocks of
- common lines are assigned a colour different from those around them, and drawn
- on the bars representing the files; a line links the matched blocks. The
- matched colours in the bar chart are used as the text colour for the file
- display; the default text colour for unmatched lines is black (red or yellow on
- the chart). Black marks by the bar chart show where the current text display is
- in the files.
-
-
- ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 10. Composite ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
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- The composite file is made from the two source files, using the common lines
- where possible.
-
- This is the default colour scheme:
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- Common lines have a white background.
-
- Lines unique to File A are shown in black on yellow.
-
- Lines unique to File B are shown in black on red.
-
- Where a block of lines in File B has been moved from where it was in File A the
- program has to guess whether block 1 was moved up past block 2 or block 2 moved
- down past block 1. It shows the larger block as common and the other as moved
- in each file. The text shown as moved is drawn in a dark colour (not black) on
- yellow or red. The bar chart shows the connections.
-
-
- ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 11. Colours ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
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- Default colours are:
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- Text Background
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- Yellow
- Lines unique to File A (or moved in File A) Used in bar chart and as text
- background.
- Red
- Lines unique to File B (or moved in File B) Used in bar chart and as text
- background.
- White
- Lines common to File A and File B Text background only.
-
- See Composite for how moved blocks are coloured.
-
- Text Foreground
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- Blue
- Dark pink
- Dark green
- Dark cyan
- Text that has been matched in both files. The same colour is used for the
- identical text in each file; the choice of colour is such that surrounding
- blocks of matched lines use different ones. The same colour is used in the
- bar chart to show the lines.
- Black
- Unmatched text.
-
- The actual colours are defined by the user in the Define colours dialog.
-
-
- ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 12. Colours dialog ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
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- The Colours dialog allows the colours used by Contrast to be set to any of 16
- colours provided by Presentation Manager. Five text and three background
- colours need to be defined. They do not have to be all different, but the
- display may be confusing if they are not.
-
- The default button resets all the colours to the program-supplied settings.
-
-
- ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ 13. Font Dialog ΓòÉΓòÉΓòÉ
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- The Font dialog allows any fixed-width font present on the system to be used to
- display the file. If there is no suitable font, the program will use the System
- Proportional font, but text alignment will suffer as a result. The numbers
- given after the font names are point sizes.
-
- The italic and bold checkboxes allow the font to be displayed in different
- styles.