With my roots in maintenance programming, I’ve used a wide assortment of programming tools. Maintaining legacy code is not much fun. Anything that makes it easier gets added to my personal collection of productivity applications. I make a point of learning them inside and out.
I carry the tools with me from project to project. I recommend them to coworkers. I’ll use them even if my employer provides alternate tools for free. I’ll complain loudly if the company I work for won’t allow me to use them — for policy reasons, consistency reasons, or security reasons. (Most of my bosses eventually concede the point. After all, they’re interfering with my ability to get things done, which is presumably why they hired me.)
Beyond Compare by Scooter Software is one of those tools. It’s the best file comparison tool I’ve ever used. And not just me – It’s also earned praise from other programmers.
When I heard that version 3 was soon to be released, I was both excited and a bit nervous. What new features would they add? Were they going to break any behavior I relied on?
The website lists the new features, but the best new feature is the polished user interface, which makes it easier to move blocks of text and make inline edits to files.
File Comparison in Beyond Compare 3
And no, they didn’t mess up anything in the process.
I played with the beta for several weeks, and recently bought the full version. If you’re not using it already, you should try it.
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