BC3 folder compare slower then BC2

[AkshayH]

Have gone back to using BC2 as finding BC3 folder compare is much slower when comparing lots of XML files.

Also getting intermittent crashes when comparing files with Sourcesafe with BC3 build 9222.


Anyone else having these problems?

[Zoë]

There were some reports of the folder comparison being slower than BC2, but they've generally been fixed in the current release. Make sure that you're comparing apples to apples though; if you have BC3 using the "HTML Tidy" rule and BC2 just using the regular text comparison there will be a noticable difference in speed.

We have gotten two crash reports from you. Both look like they occurred while you were closing a window. Is that the case, and if so, was it the last window open?

[AkshayH]

Hi Craig,

Don't believe I have HTML tidy installed - but how do I tell whether it is using it?
I am using Quick Test options:
- Comapre file size
- Comapre timestamps with secs tolerance.


As for the crash - it appears to happen when
- have done a folder compare
- then I do a compare of another file with a version in Sourcesafe
- when I close the compare, it crashes
- the screenshot you see in the background is the folder compare
- can't reproduce consistently but happens at least 2-3 times a day for me

Thanks
Akshay

[Zoë]

If you're only comparing sizes and timestamps then HTML tidy won't get used. How many files are you comparing and what kind of difference in time are you seeing? When doing the initial comparison, BC3's rules based comparisons can be slower, but every other type should be at least as fast.

I'll see what I can find regarding the crashes.

[AkshayH]

I am comparing 2 folders that contain XML files:
- expected XML folder contains approx 3000 XML files (left side)
- actual XML folder generally contains less than 50 files (right side)

I have the folder compare set to show me files Right new and Right orphans.

At the moment I am getting instant refresh on both BC2 and BC3 so am finding it hard to pinpoint. I will revert to using BC3 and let you know if I can narrow it down further.

Thanks
Akshay

[AkshayH]

Have pinpointed one problem. With BC3 I am finding the following is significantly slower. BC3 takes almost 3 to 5 secs while BC2 is instant.

Steps:
- setup BC3 as the file comparer for Sourcesafe
- open a BC3 session with a folder compare
- now goto Sourcesafe and do a compare of a file that has been checked out and changed.
- the compare takes 3-5 secs sometimes longer.
- also sometimes BC3 does not find the temp file and shows Error opening file for the temp file that it gets from Sourcesafe.
- if I close the BC3 completely and then do a file compare from Sourcesafe then it always works fast.

Thanks
Akshay

[Zoë]

You should have SourceSafe set up to call bcomp.exe instead of bcompare.exe. If there's already a copy of BC running bcomp.exe will wait for the comparison to load, whereas bcompare.exe won't, so it may exit early.

[AkshayH]

I am using bcomp.exe.

Thanks
Akshay

[Michael Bulgrien]

- if I close the BC3 completely and then do a file compare from Sourcesafe then it always works fast.

Have you tried the /solo parameter to force version control compares to open in a separate instance of BC3?

[AkshayH]

No I have not but am going to give it a go now.

Thanks
Akshay

[Aaron]

Also, since you mention reverting, I would like to mention that you can have both BC2 and BC3 installed simultaneously. By default, BC3 installs to a separate directory and stores settings in a different location.

Just in case the reverting involved reinstalling.