How to ignore file extension?

[Lutz]

There are only paid versions of BC, Standard and PRO, but no free version. The 30-day-use-trial also offers PRO features by default. Please make sure that you really got PRO (50$) and not Standard (30$).

Greetings Lutz

[raywood]

Ah, I see. It develops that I have only the Standard version. So I can't ignore extensions?

[Lutz]

Unfortunately, yes!

You should try trial again as Aaron initially suggested to consider if its worth 20$.

Greetings Lutz

[raywood]

Right. I overlooked that. Good advice. Thanks!

[chrisjj]

> Do you just have one large folder structure with various file types, with
> random file types in the same folder structure on the other side?

Not random - various.

> If so then declaring all of them as you have is the best workaround.

Disappointing. Could ypu please just make *.*=*.* work? Thanks.

> Normally, I would expect for two different libraries to contain
> subfolders with specific file types (such as an iTunes folder that
> contains only mp4).

You are mistaken. iTunes folders often contain a wide mix of audio file types. The simplest iTunes import of an audio file does not change its format to mp4.

[chrisjj]

> Ah, I see. It develops that I have only the Standard version. So I can't
> ignore extensions?

No version of BC3 has Ignore File Extensions. For that you have to use BC2 - any version.

What BC3 Standard doesn't have that BC3 Pro does is the Alignment Override feature which (until the currently failing *.*=*.* case is fixed) doesn't do Ignore File Extensions, but which Team Scooter have suggested provides (in Pro) a workaround for the loss of Ignore File Extensions, by allowing the user to manually set an Override for each file extension neededing to be ignored.

I hope that's clear.

[raywood]

OK. I have upgraded to 3.2.3. I have renamed BC3Key.txt to be BC3Key.old. I have checked the box to evaluate Pro features under Help and have restarted BC. There is still no Alignment Override option, if only because there is no Misc. tab in Session > Session Settings. I am guessing that this is because I am using the portable version, but I don't know.

[Lutz]

Yes, thats true.
I tried it with my standard installation and inspected the registry. There is a value "SupportsMerge" toggling data between 0 and 1.

Since portable installations don't write to the registry this is not possible directly.

You can add the key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Scooter Software\Beyond Compare 3" using regedit and add value "SupportsMerge" with data 1 (REG_DWORD).

Then you have PRO-features enabled in portable installations also (all installations share this value).

@Scooter:
Licensed PRO versions change the value on startup, so there might be no need of using the registry (just hold the information in memory, I'm shure it already is there).
Suggestion: Store this information in the bcstate.xml.

Greetings Lutz

[Aaron]

Hello,

If you go back to the Help menu, does it show you are in Pro mode? If you go to the Home screen, do you see the Text Merge session available in the session list?

If so, you should see a Misc tab if you go to the Folder Compare, then go to the Session menu -> Session Settings.

Do you have a registered, regular install of BC3 as well? You can revert that to a trial to test with.

[Lutz]

Hi Aaron,

could you please refer to my posting?
I think if one has a regular install there is the registry value and the Standard/PRO decision depends on it.
The question is:
Where does portable trial installations store the information of using Standard/PRO-features (I assume in the registry, if the key doesn't exist before, and not, if it does)?

Greetings Lutz

In addition to my first answer:
I can't change my portable trial installation from PRO to standard without modifying the registry.

[Zoë]

Lutz:

The SupportsMerge value has two overlapping purposes:
1) It controls the "Evaluate Pro Edition Features" behavior.
2) It tells third party tools (like Code Co-op) whether BC supports pro-level features.

We have to store it in the registry so those applications can find it, and we don't store it in BCState.xml a second time because we don't want duplicate data that can get out of sync.

[chrisjj]

>> The question is:
>> Where does portable trial installations store the information
>> of using Standard/PRO-features

> We have to store it in the registry

For a portable install??

[Zoë]

As Lutz already mentioned, portable installs don't write that value.

The current issue is that it isn't possible to change the "Evaluate Pro Edition features" option from a portable install. I was explaining why that's so, and there are a lot of other things I'd give priority to over fixing that.

[chrisjj]

> As Lutz already mentioned, portable installs don't write that value.

OK, then what is the answer to the question?

"Where does portable trial installations store the information of using Standard/PRO-features ... ?"

> The current issue is that it isn't possible to change the "Evaluate Pro
> Edition features" option from a portable install.

Meaning the answer is: "nowhere" ?

[Michael Bulgrien]

As I said earlier in this thread: While I value alignment overrides, personally I agree that using alignment overrides to compare files of different types is often a waste of time. In many situations, simply ignoring the file extension would be preferable/easier. It is a shame that standard users can't simply ignore file extensions while professional users can also choose to perform alignment overrides. If the functionality weren't gutted from the program, we wouldn't even be having this discussion right now.