Add Review Notes / Comments to Diff

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  • bpquirk
    New User
    • May 2006
    • 1

    Add Review Notes / Comments to Diff

    Is there a way to add notes or comments to a file comparison? I'm often reviewing / diffing code and I'd like to be able to add notes for the original developer.

    I envision something like MS Word where I could select a line and add a comment.

    Thanks,
    Brian
  • snidely.too
    Expert
    • Jul 2008
    • 80

    #2
    I can see this taking a few different forms:

    a "gloss" that goes to the clipboard, that can be pasted to any document (including e-mail) the user might have open. This should include the line numbers from both left and right sides for reference back to the source.

    a "comment" inserted directly into the file on the side selected, with any comment prefix that BC3 knows about for the filetype and a reference to the line numbe(s) on the other side.

    a "gloss" that automatically gets inserted into a file differences report.

    My choice would be for either the first or last forms -- but maybe Brian has another suggestion that fits his uses better.

    /dps

    Comment

    • mgillespie
      Enthusiast
      • Dec 2007
      • 39

      #3
      This would be a very good differentiator for the Pro version. If it's implemented similar to the way MSWord does it, as a overlay, that be be sent back to the developer from the reviewer.

      I don't think any other diff application does anything like this...

      Comment

      • Michael Bulgrien
        Carpal Tunnel
        • Oct 2007
        • 1772

        #4
        I believe someone mentioned in another thread that it would be nice to be able save session info to a file in a common folder so that another user could open that session info file to see the same compare session you were working with. It seems to me that such a "common" session file could also contain comments from the original reviewer.

        When the second reviewer opens the BC3 session file, it would load the first reviewers saved session and comments. When the second reviewer selects a commented line, the comments could appear in an info pane at the bottom of BC3 just like the current info panes that are already there for things like the "Text not found" responses to find operations.

        Of course, there might need to be some sort of visual indicator to alert reviewer to where the comments are...such as the yellow gutter color when a line is changed (but a different color for commented lines).
        Last edited by Michael Bulgrien; 06-May-2010, 10:14 AM. Reason: corrected typo
        BC v4.0.7 build 19761
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        Comment

        • Chris
          Team Scooter
          • Oct 2007
          • 5533

          #5
          Thank you for the suggestions. A commenting feature sounds useful. We'll keep it in mind as a possibility for the future.
          Chris K Scooter Software

          Comment

          • thincal
            New User
            • May 2010
            • 1

            #6
            So what's going on with this commenting feature in BC?

            Comment

            • Aaron
              Team Scooter
              • Oct 2007
              • 15941

              #7
              It is still on our Customer Wishlist. A few other big features have taken priority.
              Aaron P Scooter Software

              Comment

              • chisrael
                New User
                • Jun 2010
                • 1

                #8
                Comments

                Hi,

                I would like to develop this functionality as a plug-in. is there a documented API for BC? what i would basically like to do is to be able to load and save
                windiff-formatted comment files.

                unfortunately, people in my company still use windiff in order to perform
                code-reviews as it contains a comments module... i'd like to change that!

                thanks..

                chen

                Comment

                • Chris
                  Team Scooter
                  • Oct 2007
                  • 5533

                  #9
                  Beyond Compare has a plug-in API that can make a complete viewer (replacing the Text Compare, Data Compare, etc). The plug-in API doesn't provide a way to add commenting functionality to the Text Compare.
                  Chris K Scooter Software

                  Comment

                  • Aaron
                    Team Scooter
                    • Oct 2007
                    • 15941

                    #10
                    In addition to Chris' notes, we do have a Description field on the Home screen. Select the session and then view the Specs tab. This is not full commenting, but does allow for a couple small notes about the saved session.
                    Aaron P Scooter Software

                    Comment

                    • spartlow
                      New User
                      • Dec 2010
                      • 1

                      #11
                      Code Review Notes

                      I'd like to resurrect this topic. I work for a large software company and we do whole team code reviews on (almost) all our code. Many have moved to creating zips and using BC for the reviews but some still use printed paper for them (ah!). The main reason for this as that BC doesn't have a good way for a reviewer to jot notes about the code as he/she is looking at it. It is also hard for the coder to collect these comments (no easy place to write it in the code). With paper this was much easier.

                      So what I think we want (and I suspect many others do to if they do any sort of formal code reviews) is the following, in priority order:
                      1. Way to add notes to code without changing it directly.
                      2. Way to view those notes easily. Perhaps a go to next note button?
                      3. Way to send those notes to the coder. Perhaps copy all notes to the clipboard (adding line #) or save them to a separate file.
                      4. Way for coder to import multiple notes into BC so I can see them all along with the code.
                      5. Way to do this all seamlessly and live over the internet/intranet (okay, perhaps I'm dreaming)

                      Any chance of this happening? We've been using BC for a while and hoping this would come a long with no luck so far. I haven't found this available elsewhere either (at least with any of the tools my company has bought/created).

                      Related thread: http://www.scootersoftware.com/vbull...ead.php?t=4959

                      Comment

                      • Aaron
                        Team Scooter
                        • Oct 2007
                        • 15941

                        #12
                        Hello,

                        This is still on our Customer Wishlist. Our wishlist is not currently scheduled development, but is a place our developers go to for ideas for future enhancements or features. I've added your notes to our entry.
                        Aaron P Scooter Software

                        Comment

                        • snidely.too
                          Expert
                          • Jul 2008
                          • 80

                          #13
                          I'd like to be another squeaky wheel for this request.

                          /dps

                          Comment

                          • ThePineappleTree
                            New User
                            • Sep 2016
                            • 1

                            #14
                            Any further word on this feature? It would be very helpful to my work.

                            Comment

                            • Aaron
                              Team Scooter
                              • Oct 2007
                              • 15941

                              #15
                              Thanks for the ping. Sorry, we don't have any new info for this wishlist item at this time.
                              Aaron P Scooter Software

                              Comment

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