DOCBOOK-APPS: diffmk vs xmldiff

[Nicolas Chauvat <Nicolas dot Chauvat at logilab dot fr>]

Hi Lists,

I was reading the august archive of docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org and
saw that our xmldiff[1] was being compared[2] to diffmk[3]. I'd like to
add the following:

* diffmk outputs an xml file that's used to generate a colorized version
of the source, whereas xmldiff outputs an xml file that follows the
XUpdate DTD and does not offer a colorized version of the source (yet?).

* diffmk uses the Least Common Sequence algorithm available in the Perl
Diff module, whereas xmldiff uses an algorithm that fits best with XML
trees. To be more specific, xmldiff will figure out a tag name change or
the move of a subtree whereas diffmk (with LCS) won't.

* diffmk is Perl code. xmldiff is Python code. In case of langage wars, it
may help you chose your side...

* Part of xmldiff in written in C to make it *much* faster, but I haven't
compared xmldiff and diffmk speeds recently, so I can't comment.

Hope that helps,

1: http://www.logilab.org/xmldiff/
2: http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-apps/200108/msg00346.html
3: http://www.sun.com/xml/developers/diffmk/

-- 
Nicolas Chauvat

http://www.logilab.com - "Mais oł est donc Ornicar ?" - LOGILAB, Paris (France)