Difference engine

[Michael Allan]

Martin Häcker wrote:

> I like the sketch - I think that the merging stuff is too early to
> get right, as it requires deep integration back to where the
> proposals started, which is much harder than just one way
> integration (if I understand this right).

I think you're right, it's gotta be for later.  It's deep, like you
say.  The drafting medium either exposes an import interface (maybe
MediaWiki has an extension for that) or the diff engine needs to
access the backend (so either local deploy of diff engine, or
centralized draft storage hub, as you say).  Failing all of that, it
just falls back to providing instructions for a do-it-yourself, manual
merge.

Maybe a bare-bones impl (no merge, just forward linking) can be coded
in 3 weeks. ??  Bare bones is all we need, just now.  For example, I
just finished updating my draft of P/vohall, merging changes from
Thomas's.  I tried using the BASH command line to get a cross-page
diff.  For the record, here's how:

  diff -u \
  <(wget -q -O - \
  http://t.zelea.com/wiki/Special:Export?pages=User:ThomasvonderElbe_GmxDe/p/vohall) \
  <(wget -q -O - \
  http://t.zelea.com/wiki/Special:Export?pages=User:Mike-ZeleaCom/p/vohall)

It's workable, but then I found that kdiff3 is much nicer.  (It works
on Windows, too.)  A screenshot is attached showing the latest diff.
This would be for Thomas to cherry-pick from:

  kdiff3 \
  http://t.zelea.com/wiki/Special:Export?pages=User:ThomasvonderElbe_GmxDe/p/vohall \
  http://t.zelea.com/wiki/Special:Export?pages=User:Mike-ZeleaCom/p/vohall

So anyway, that helps for manual cherry-picking, which is fine for
now.  Only trouble is we can't embed any of this in discussions, do
it's hard to talk about particular diffs, especially in a public
forum.

I'll start posting the sketch around soon, to see if anyone else is
interested.  The coolest result would be if someone saw the
opportunity and just ran with it as a separate project.  It'd really
start something, I think.

Till soon,
-- 
Michael Allan

Toronto, 647-436-4521
Skype michael_c_allan
http://zelea.com/