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Comparing project versions

To provide an easy way to see how versions of code are different from each other Assist provides a differencing tool. Let's try it now on our cooltool project to see how it compares version 1 against version 2. Use the File+Project+Browse Differences menu (or type Alt+B).

How to open a differencing browser (or press Alt+B)

A differencing browser opens. On the left we see the same code that is in the Liberty BASIC editor.

Getting ready to browse differences

Let's load the version 1 code into the right hand side. To do this we click on the Browse button and a chooser window will appear as shown.

Choose a version

Now we click on version 1. See how the comment for that version is displayed along with a date and time? We'll click Open (or just double-click on version 1) to load that version into the differencing browser.

The differencing browser does its thing

Notice that the lines of code on the left side that are different from what is on the right are blue? This makes it easy to know that these lines are only on the left. Since there is no code on the right that is different from the left, it is all black on the right. As an illustration delete the remark before the nomainwin on the left and click on the Refresh button. This is what we will see.

Blue on the left and red on the right

See how the remark on the right has turned red because it is only on that side? Differences on the left are blue and on the right they are red.

Let's try one more thing. If a line of code is slightly different on each side, it will still get colored. Let's change the open statement on the left to open "Cool Toolz" for window as #mainview and click the Refresh button to see this.

Spotting small differences

So this helps to spot even small differences between versions. In this case just a single letter z gets our attention.

We've been changing code on the left and not on the right because the differencing browser will only permit editing on the left. The code on the right is versioned code and cannot be modified. Once code is versioned it is not supposed to change. Code on the left is from the editor and can be modified. Clicking on the Accept button will copy the code on the left side back into the Liberty BASIC editor, replacing what was there.

Close the differencing browser before moving on to the next section.