15-Minute Reviews :: SwiftCompare v1.2

Hello all and welcome to another 15-Minute Review! Today’s application is SwiftCompare version by Oorja Software – An application to compare files and folders with various tools to help synchronize easier.

Software Description

As Giveaway of the Day states:

“SwiftCompare is a utility to Compare Files and Folders and Merge/Synchronize the differences between them. What makes SwiftCompare distinctive is the presence of a very customizable Compare and Merge Engine(CME), allowing the user to Compare and Merge/Synchronize Folders and Files the way he likes. SwiftCompare can be used to Manage Source code, keep Folders in Sync, Verify Data, Restore corrupt Data, and much more.”

Quick Pros

• Interface is easy and quick to use
• File compare has many features great for source code compares
  • Code highlighting (List of languages highlighted short – Does not do CSS)
  • Compare side-to-side and ability to edit within the application
  • Attempts to line up blocks of code so it is easier to see where changed have been made
  • Easy to merge differences as needed
• Folder compare is easy to use with its features
  • Detailed report to tell you how many differences there are
  • Easy-to-understand icons and color-coordinating for quick reference
  • Lots of options on how to handle changes
• Plenty of customization options in the options
• Backup functionality available to ensure you don’t destroy good files

Quick Cons

• File comparison only usable for text files organized in a line-by-line nature
• Does not appear to be schedulable or command-line usage

Expansion

This application offers an easy-to-use interface and is quick to use; I found myself up and running very quickly; All the features here are pretty straightforward and easy to get going. There are two major modes in this application; File comparison and folder comparison (Including subfolders). Both modes run in their own unique ways.

File compare is clearly designed to be used by various types of developers. With its line-by-line comparison, syntax highlighting and more. When you compare two files together, what the application does is it attempts to match up similar blocks of code, and then shifts the rest of the blocks that don’t match on both sides in between the known matches, hopefully. There is a handy guide on the left that shows colored blocks where it displays where diffs are and the blocks for both sides; Handy for quickly hunting through large files; Essentially a glorified scrollbar. Finally, you can choose to copy one file to the other, or if you’re feeling adventuresome, the application also allows you to merge specific diff blocks to the other file instead of changing everything; This could be handy if you’re comparing significantly different versions of a file and you only want one block of code replaced.

Folder compare is very similar to most other folder compare functionalities. Once you’ve picked your folders, it will compare everything and report on the number of differences; It even breaks down into how many are the same folder or file, how many are older/newer, how many are orphans (Missing in the other side), as well as files that are different but with the same date stamp. Once you get into the main window, you have a side-by-side Explorer-style list window that shows the above-mentioned factors by both icon as well as coloring, making it easy to spot where there are differences. You can manage everything from within this without having to leave the application for the most part. Delete, copy/replace from one side to another, touch (To make the date current), rename as well as the ability to launch a pair of files in the file comparison to name a few features. You can also force directional or bi-directional synchronization.

There is plenty of optimization functionality in this application as well; Too much to list. The options range from how the comparisons are done, to the file and folder editos, synchronization as well as backup functionality. The backup functionality is handy in that it does lessen the risk of destroying a good file/folder with a mistake somewhere.

With that said, there are a few issues I do have. There appears to be no automated functionality, nor method to be able to use the application from the command line so that you could script it as well or use it in a schedule. The file comparer is only good for raw text files written in a line-by-line basis; It can not be used effectively (or at all) on any other filetypes, limiting this tool to developers. As well, as mentioned above, there is a limited number of syntax-highlighting formats the application supports, and languages such as Ruby and CSS are not included, with no easy way to build your own highlighting functionality.

Final Verdict

All-in-all, this application appears to work well for a development situation though really needs more syntax-highlighting formats incorporated. For free, it isn’t a bad tool and does appear to function adequately. As for paying $27 for it, if it is a tool that might be useful to you, it may be worth ir, but I would recommend looking around and trying out others first; I’ve seen similar and better previously.

Edit: Reading the comments at Giveaway after my review, it appears that Simon as well as others have posted a link to WinMerge which looks to be very similar to SwiftCompare, and is GPL licensed. Thanks Simon, Scoglio and David for pointing this one out.

Posted by BladedThoth on Tuesday, August 21, 2007