Word wrap in file view of text-possible?

[Aaron]

Hello,

Would this wrapping be needed for display (to help read long lines) or to compare across line breaks (where two files have line breaks in different spots). These are technically two different features, and we catalog requests accordingly. Samples files or sample cases also help, as we add those to our entries on the subject. You can post here, or email us at [email protected] with a link back to this forum thread for our reference.

[mindstream]

If I had to choose only one, I would recommend wrapping for display (to help read long lines).

My reason for this selection is that I could always manually remove line breaks from the files (in advance) to avoid that problem.

I really would prefer both though.

[Thelo]

I'm another long-time user of Beyond Compare who would very much like word-wrapping (for display, to read long lines) to be implemented as soon as possible. The software is overall very, very good, but the lack of word wrapping really sticks out as a bizarre omission, from the user's perspective.

I promise I'll tell all my friends about Beyond Compare when word wrapping becomes a reality. ;-)

[mszczepaniak]

I'm another long-time user of Beyond Compare who would very much like word-wrapping (for display, to read long lines) to be implemented as soon as possible. The software is overall very, very good, but the lack of word wrapping really sticks out as a bizarre omission, from the user's perspective.

I promise I'll tell all my friends about Beyond Compare when word wrapping becomes a reality. ;-)

Amen to that. I work with language models, do quite a bit of text cleaning and use BC to see difference between files in various stages of my processing pipeline. I also us Notepad ++ and having word wrap is something I really value in that tool as well. I love BC, but it's a real pain not to be forced to scroll over long lines to see difference.

[Aaron]

Thanks. It's still a feature we'd like to tackle on our Wishlist.

[Rando]

Thanks. It's still a feature we'd like to tackle on our Wishlist.

If it is your wishlist why didn't you do it?
Is there a technical problem?

For me it is one of the reasons I didn't buy the software till yet:
Examdiff pro has wordwrap. Examdiff pro has a nice interface and compare colors I like more but I know I can change them in Beyond Compare (but not so detailed as in Examdiff). What I like in examdiff is that you can immediately see the text what has been added, deleted, changed, changed in changed, they all have different colors and the colors are indicated in their statusbar. However, examdiff has not all the possibilities beyond compare has. I've also tested word files in examdiff and updated them but they ended all corrupt. Technically, in my opinion examdiff is not the best software. But it is easier to use, the usability of examdiff is better.

[LonelyPixel]

Still wanting this, too. Is there a public or member-only list of upcoming features that you are working on or will release soon?

[Aaron]

All development takes time. Examdiff has some features BC is missing, while BC has some features Examdiff is missing. We have many wishlisted items that have not been able to be tackled yet, but have kept very busy with other development. You can see our bug fixes and new features list here:
http://www.scootersoftware.com/downl...zz=v4changelog

It's been a project we've wanted to do for some time, but is a large reworking of how we display information in the Text view and how our controls interact. It's not something we'll be able to do short-term.

[Aaron]

No, we had public announcements of features back with the BC3 Beta, but were then unable to implement them into BC3. This lead to some backlash. We keep our list private, which also allows us to make notes and include private information as a single, central tracker entry.

[SharkLasers]

Any news regarding word wrap?

[LonelyPixel]

Oh, comparing minified JavaScript files, I found out that it already does word-wrap. Just in a very uncontrolled way.

[Aaron]

Hello,

Sorry, no new news at this time.

[Aaron]

Hello,

Yes, while we don't support wrapping in the current version, a partial workaround is to use an external conversion which normalizes whitespace and line breaks to help control the layout of each file. I assume this may be what is happening for your minified files. We have a few for download under Additional File Formats to "tidy" specific extensions, as well as a general KB article:
http://www.scootersoftware.com/downl..._moreformatsv4
http://www.scootersoftware.com/suppo...rnalconversion

[LonelyPixel]

Ehm no, the line just breaks after a few thousand columns, all lines at the same length. I guess BC couldn't handle longer lines and just gives up by inserting a line break there. This wrapping is of course completely useless.

[Aaron]

The File Format controls what the max line length is under the Tools menu -> File Formats dialog (select specific or Everything Else text format).

Under the Conversion tab, the default value is 4096, with a max value of 65536.