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World of Shareware - Software Farm 2
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GENERAL
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CONTRAST.ZIP
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CONTRAST.DOC
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1991-02-17
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************ CONTRAST help ***************
Usage: CONTRAST [file1] [file2]
If given no parameters (or just one), Contrast will bring up a dialog asking
for 2 files. The files can be specified as for COMP, i.e. directories for both
files default to the current one, and the second filename defaults to the first.
If Contrast cannot open the files for some reason, it will bring up the dialog
again. In this case, click Cancel if you want to exit from the program.
To exit Contrast, press F3 or select Exit from the File pulldown.
To scroll the displayed file, use either the cursor keys or the scroll bars.
The mouse has no effect on either the text area, or the bar chart.
What it does:
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. Colours indicate which lines are common, and which unique.
Bar Chart
The bar chart is a graphical representation of the two real 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 colours
in the bar chart are used as the text colour for the file display; unmatched
lines are written in black, and displayed in red or yellow on the chart. Black
marks by the bar chart show where the current text display is in the files.
Composite
The composite file is made from the two files, using the common lines
where possible.
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.
Colours
Text Background
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
Dark 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.
File Selection Dialog
The File Selection dialog asks you to enter the names of the two
files to be contrasted. The default drive, and default paths for any drive
used, are assumed if none are specified. Parent directories may be refered to
as '..'. File B can be given just as a directory. In this case the file name
and extension are taken as being the same as File A.
Problem Message Box
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.
File Menu
The File menu contains the following items:
File A
File B
Displays the text of the appropriate file.
Composite
Displays the composite file.
Open
Allows new files for contrasting to be specified.
Exit
Closes the Contrast program.
Help Menu (OS/2 1.2 version only)
The Help menu contains the following items:
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 useless information about the application.
Keys for Contrast
The Contrast program assigns the following special functions to keys:
Alt+A
Alt+B
Display file A or B
Alt+C
Display the composite file
Alt+L
Alt+T
Ignore leading or trailing blanks for line comparison. Use the Options
menu to see the current status.
F3
Exit the Contrast program.
Arrow keys
Page Up
Page Down
Scroll the displayed file.
Options Menu
The Options menu contains the following items:
Ignore leading blanks
Re-contrasts the files, with white space at the beginning of lines ignored.
Any formatting of programs will thus be irrelevant.
Ignore trailing blanks
Ignores white space at the end of lines. Some editors can be inconsistent
about leaving this in files.
Font Menu
The Font menu allows up to three different point sizes of text
to be used to display the file, if present on the system. All of these are
Courier fonts, which are fixed-pitch, i.e. all characters are of equal width.
If no Courier font is available, the program will use the System Proportional
font, but text alignment will suffer as a result. Since font use is different
for OS/2 1.1, it always seems to come up with the system proportional font.