View source for Diff And Patch

==Diff Tools==

Diff tools can be extremely useful when working on large projects, especially when sharing code between several programmers without the aid of a [[Using Source Control with the Source SDK|revision control system]] such as CVS or Perforce. These tools make it possible to track changes betwen two different versions of a mod, and are even capable of seamlessly merging two different mods. 

Yet another use is to examine changes on the SDK tree after a update, in addition to reading the changelog.

; [[Alienbrain]]
* A groupware framework for game developing, includes a good diff tool.
* [http://www.alienbrain.com AlienBrain]

;Beyond Compare
* An excellent text comparison tool.
* [http://www.scootersoftware.com/ Scooter Software]

; Cygwin 
* A POSIX layer for Windows which includes many popular GNU tools such as GCC (GNU Compiler Collection), GNU Patch, etc. 
* [http://www.cygwin.com Cygwin]

; Meld 
*  Meld is a visual diff and merge tool. It integrates especially well with CVS. The diff viewer lets you edit files in place (diffs update dynamically), and a middle column shows detailed changes and allows merges. Gnome app.
* [http://meld.sourceforge.net/ Meld]

; Winmerge
* A Windows tool for examining differences between two set of files.
* [http://winmerge.sf.net Winmerge]

; Sourcegear DiffMerge Free
* DiffMerge is an application to visually compare and merge files for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
* Visual folder diff (inspect sourcecode diff very fast on new releases)
* [http://www.sourcegear.com/diffmerge/index.html DiffMerge Download ]


You can read more about how diff software works here:

* [http://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/diffutils.html Diff Utils]

[[Category:Technical]]