I think I need a tldr for a 12 year old because my answer to that question is: does it need to be improved?
Diff, like all the original Unix tools was only meant to do one thing, compare two files. The beauty in that being that it can be a core component of whatever you want.
UI extensions, algorithm adjustability to name some. But based on what Myers mentioned as someone else said, “improved diff” is partially a semantic diff. One that’s less cold blooded about trivial changes like white spaces.
I don’t mean to be the typical pedantic HN commenter but that sounds like a diff of commit objects rather than files.
Diff, like all the original Unix tools was only meant to do one thing, compare two files. The beauty in that being that it can be a core component of whatever you want.
UI extensions, algorithm adjustability to name some. But based on what Myers mentioned as someone else said, “improved diff” is partially a semantic diff. One that’s less cold blooded about trivial changes like white spaces.
I don’t mean to be the typical pedantic HN commenter but that sounds like a diff of commit objects rather than files.