Komparator tool.. what gives

[Harry P <reader@newsguy.com>]

lenny 2.6.26-1-686

This query would probably be better directed to a kde group but I'd
like to hear from anyone here who uses komparator before going there.

I was looking for a tool to compare directories.  Something more
involved than diff which doesn't ouput changes in files with the same
names.

So I want to compare the directories but also the files and ouput the
differences. 

I googled and happened on the kde tool komparator.  It was written up
as viable and useful tool.

So I installed the necessary pkgs to get it installed and running.  It
appears to be either installed incorrectly or just an absolutely sorry
tool. 

The interace opens and has no clear way to start the comparison... no
start switch or the like.  I see what appears to be the main function
and its called `search'.  No indication of what the search would be
for.

I started it like this:

komparator oneA oneB (as directed by the minimal help provided)

Hitting the silly `search' switch does nothing whatever once the app
opens.  Seems to be some real disconnect between what it is supposed
to do and getting that done.

Of course its possible and even likely that the `disconnect' reside in
my skull...

Can anyone tell me if this tool is actually worth messing further
with?

I seriously doubt it was written as a joke so I must be missing the
main way to use it.

Or maybe have a suggestion for another way to get the comparing done.
shell script, perl .. something in c .. whatever

There is a linux tool called `dircmp' which appears to be even less
useful and makes no claims to be up to much.

I don't see it on `apt-file search' but have tried out the ncurses
version on another OS.   Its a little too basic for what I'm after.