How do I make Beyond Compare ignore certain differences while comparing versions of Delphi Form Files

Question

I use Beyond Compare (version 3.1.10) to compare different versions of Delphi Form Files, but I don't want to see differences concerning ExplicitTop, ExplicitLeft, ExplicitHeight and ExplicitWidth.

Details: These lines will always begin with a number of whitespace characters, then "ExplicitXXX = " and a number. Older versions of Delphi didn't have these lines, so I want to ignore differences where these lines are added to the newest version, and I also want to ignore differences where the number has changed.

Does anyone know how to do this?

Edit: Duplicate (more or less) of:

How do I configure BeyondCompare to ignore SCM replaced text in comments?

Eponymy

possible duplicate of How do I configure BeyondCompare to ignore SCM replaced text in comments? – Eponymy

But with a better answer here IMO.... – Idolism

The other question is asking about matching text within other grammar items (comments, strings), and BC doesn't support nesting grammar items yet, so the solution here won't work there. – Indetermination

Answer 1

1. Load a pair of DFM files showing the difference.
2. Click the Session Settings button (aka Rules w/ umpire icon) or use the Session->Session Settings menu item.
3. Switch to the Importance tab then click the Edit Grammar... button to open a second dialog.
4. Click the New... button below the top listbox to open a third dialog.
5. Change the Element Name option to something like Explicit*, change the Text Matching to Explicit(Left|Top|Width|Height) = \d+ and check the Match character case and Regular expression checkboxes, then click Ok, then click Ok again in the second dialog.
6. Explicit* should now appear in the original dialog's Grammar Elements list. Uncheck it, then change the combobox at the bottom of the dialog from Use for this view only to Update session defaults.

Dionnadionne

Fabolous answer, just what I was hoping for. You can't beat a good walkthrough :-) – Eponymy

Especially when it comes from the horse's mouth himself. – Mutualism

Note that these instructions describe how to define the given text as "Unimportant", which (by default) will still be visible (and colored blue). You can ignore/hide Blue text with the "Ignore Unimportant Differences" toggle. – Formica

For more recent versions: scootersoftware.com/support.php?zz=kb_unimportantv3 btw if you could right click in a code file compare and apply for ex. a namespace difference as unimportant for that session (to apply to all code comparisons) that would be so sweet. – Touber

Answer 2

I don't use Beyond Compare, but if you want to have newer versions of Delphi stop adding the (IMO useless) Explicit* properties, you can use Andreas Hausladen's DDevExtensions

Ventose

+1. I installed DDevExtensions some time ago to get rid of these properties and didn't regret it up to now. – Heavyfooted

That's part of the problem. Some of the developers on my team use this extension, others do not. – Eponymy

@Svein: Can't you convince them that the Explicit* stuff is more than superfluous? – Heavyfooted

@Ulrich: I suppose, but it still doesn't answer the actual question. And in addition to the explicit values I would like to do the same thing with the ActivePage property of page controls, so I would like to find a solution to that also. – Eponymy

Answer 3

In my case (C#), I wanted to ignore the entire line which contained namespaces (and thus, using's) which I changed. (Referenced Walkthrough - Ignore entire line if text exist in line

ie.

namespace INSERT.NAMESPACE.HERE 
      changed to 
namespace INSERT.NAMESPACE.HERE.NEW

To do that

In step 5. of Craig's solution, change the Text Matching to

" .\*INSERT.NAMESPACE.HERE.\* "

(include the quotes)

That's it.

Eclosion

Answer 4

Craig Peterson's answer is correct. N.B. However! The tab 'importance' is not always visible from Session/Session-settings. Always, from inside a Folder list view, it will not be there. It seems there are certain filetypes that do not have it either, though I'm less clear on that. BC has so many options and plugins I bet there is a workaround, but for me I have been ok so far. http://www.scootersoftware.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=8457

Sideband