Visual differencing of .slx files

[Martin Dowie]

Hi, I noticed there was an option to save .slx files in an XML format, so I
duly save my current and my previous versions to this format. Both were
12+MBytes but there was only 6kBytes difference in size. Great I thought -
huge chuncks of these files must be identical! So I ran them through our
differencing tool (BeyondCompare) and...disaster! Nearly everything was
different! Or at least everything was output in such a different order that
the tool couldn't help but show almost everything as changed.

Is there a means of forcing an ordering within the XML file? Or is there a
..slx differencing tool already out that I just haven't spotted?

TIA!
Martin

 

[Sean Liming \(eMVP\)]

The SLDXAssistant can be used to compare SLXs
http://www.sjjmicro.com/XPES_Tools_R2.html


Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental Toolkit

 

[Sean Liming \(eMVP\)]

The SLDXAssistant can be used to compare SLXs
http://www.sjjmicro.com/XPES_Tools_R2.html


Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental Toolkit

 

[Martin Dowie]

Sean,

Thanks, yes but (and I don't mean to be unkind) it is a little 'basic'. I
was hoping for something a little more graphical (a la Rhapsody's DiffMerge
for their UML tool, if anyone is familiar with that).

I was hoping for something that would display 2 of the middle panes of the
Target Designer side-by-side, with say new components in, for example,
green, deleted in grey and changed in yellow. Yellow items would be able to
be expanded and same colour scheme used to show where the differences within
the component were.

I appreciate this isn't a 1-day task, but I'm sure it must be perfectly
do-able and what an useful addition it would be!

Heck, even just adding the ability to order the XML file would help! Let
tools like BeyondCompare worry about the colorizing then!

Cheers
-- Martin

 

[Sean Liming \(eMVP\)]

The tool allows you to output the SLX details into seperate TXT files, where
you can then use a more graphical approach.

Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental Toolkit

 

[Martin Dowie]

Ok, you might have me hooked!

Can I get a txt file per component containing 'everything' about each
component?

Cheers
-- Martin

 

[Sean Liming \(eMVP\)]

Yes. Take a look at the SLX Details list posting to see what the output
looks like.


Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental Toolkit

 

[Martin Dowie]

Ok, I notice the ".NET ..." component is the first listed - is that because
the output is listed in an alphabetic order?

Cheers
-- Martin

 

[Sean Liming \(MVP\)]

Martin,

No. it was probably the first component I dropped into the configuratio.

--
Regards,

Sean Liming
www.sjjmicro.com / www.seanliming.com
Book Author - XP Embedded Advanced, XP Embedded Supplemental Toolkit

 

[Martin Dowie]

Sean,

Is the output determinstic? e.g. will components always be listed in the
same order? I can live with them being out-of-alphabetic-order, providing
they don't jump around all over the place as seems to be the case with the
XML outputs.

Cheers,
Martin