Re: Which Diff tool could I use for visually comparing two text files where Word Wrap is possible?
On Fri, 7 Apr 2023 Susmita/Rajib wrote:
[trimmed: email headers included in message body]
Ok, I shall abide by your greater wisdom.
I deny this accusation.
I would have been better guided by a simple instruction to inform
you about the binary for the line breaks, paragraph marks, et
al. With a little introduction. So here goes:
While forensic details of your plain text document's file format is
interesting and not unhelpful, I apologise for being unclear when I
wrote:
On Thu, 6 Apr 2023 davidson (DAV):
DAV> What indicates a "paragraph break" in a given style depends on
DAV> the form, not the content, of the material to be processed.
By the term "form", above, I meant the style of the document not the
file format of its digital representation.
I should have said "document" instead of "material".
DAV> It is the style of paragraph that you must reveal here
Paragraph style is apparent to the casual observer.
Hopefully you will find that one of the examples below match your
document style. If not, I trust you can present us with a couple of
short example paragraphs populated with lorem ipsum which do.
Libre Office file is used as the Editor to write the article.
You compose your original document in Libre Office. Understood.
It was used to convert the main file in plain text file for the
purpose of diff.
You then export it to plain text file format before processing it with
tools designed for plain text. Sensible.
Beginning of the article in Bin:
I am not familiar with Bin, but I imagine it is a hex viewer/editor.
[Bin code]
EF BB BF 0A 0A 0A 4A 75 73 74 20 41 20 53 74 61 74 69 6F 6E 20
^^ ^^ ^^
The first three bytes there are a unicode BOM, or Byte Order Mark,
encoded in utf-8. It is harmless. Libre Office probably put it
there. It conveniently suggests that we are looking at unicode
characters encoded in utf-8.
Next follow three newlines (normally displayed as three blank lines at
the top of the document).
[/Bin code]
Translates to text in a text editor:
"Some unreadable characters
The BOM, presumably...
and Just A Station"
...with 'J' flush to the lefthand margin. That phrase being followed
by a space (The Final Frontier).
Paragraph break with the key "Enter" is 0A.
I am aware of no paragraph style that does not include a newline. This
does not help narrow things down, unless one construes the next two
items to complete the characterisation of a paragraph break.
Line Break with the combo keys "Shift Enter" is also 0A.
Space with Space Bar is 20.
Are saying that this entire sequence of three keystrokes is how you
type a paragraph break? So that your paragraphs look like this (but
wider)?
Mystery House Style_____
This is one paragraph,
written within twenty-
four columns.
Here is another one,
written within those
same twenty-four col-
umns.
________________________
If so, please confirm. Otherwise, here are some alternatives:
Plain Style_____________
These paragraphs are
set in "plain" style.
As you can see, its
first line is indented.
In plain style,
there is not usually a
blank line dividing
each paragraph.
The precise depth of
the indentation is not
important. Its presence
is what matters.
________________________
Flush Style_____________
Do all O'Reilly books
exhibit this style? Are
they trying to instill
hygienic practices sub-
liminally?
In this style, a blank
line indicates the end
of one paragraph and
the beginning of, if
not a better paragraph,
at least a new one.
________________________
Hanging Style___________
Also called the Epstein
style, this one is
probably not the one
you are using in
your document.
At least, not unless
you are writing a
glossary, or some
kind of dictionary.
________________________
I will be surprised if one of these styles is not the one you are
using.
--
It is close to an axiom for me that when rich people expend
considerable sums of other people's money to persuade me something is
good for us, to disbelieve them. -- George Galloway
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