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Currently, Local History only allows to diff two consequent revisions. I propose to make it possible to diff two arbitrary revisions in the same way CVS does it. Additionally, I propose to implement diffing two arbitrary revisions of *different* files. This would be useful in cases, when you have several files that are similar in their structure or have the same origin. Today, it is possible to diff the current versions of two files by selecting them in Files/Projects/Favorites and invoking Tools->Diff from the pop-up menu. I find myself frequently using this functionality and would like it to be unified with Local History and generalized to handle revisions.
Changing the type to ENHANCEMENT.
so it's two use cases you are proposing: 1.) a diff for two different versions from the same file 2.) a diff for two different versions from two different files 1.) i guess we could somehow make this possible in the already existing local history view. The questions are how to do it without messing up the existing UI and if it would be really useful and not just a (eventually workaroundable) corner case. 2.) i don't see a way how to get this in a easy way from the actual state we have and isn't this even more than in 1.) a very specific case? josef, peter: any opinions? any ideas?
I'd like to make a correction to the summary: currently, when you select a past revision, it is diffed against the current one and not to the preceding revision, so you CAN'T diff two consequent revisions.
Regarding (1) - we have an example of similar functionality in CVS Search History, which allows comparing two different revisions selecting them in the list (multiple select). If it doesn't clutter the GUI there (I think it doesn't), there should be no reason why it would clutter the GUI here.
Regarding (2) - I will again reference Search History and the way it selects and shows history of several files at once. It allows to select several files/folders in Files/Projects/Favorites window and then invoke Search History from the pop-up menu. If you then switch to the Diff view inside Search History, you'll see a top-level node per each of the files you selected. You can expand this node to see revisions for each of the files. What it doesn't allow you to do is comparing revisions that don't belong to the same file (see Issue #98007). In my opinion, this ability would be useful in both CVS and Local History, and I can't see why it would bring any additional clutter to the current GUI, as by default (single selected file, single selected revision) it would look and work in the same way as now. The only behavior change I suggest in this default case is making the single selected file be diffed against the preceding revision and not against the current one, which would make it consistent with CVS Search History.