How to jump with ediff

How to jump with ediff

[Haines Brown]

I'm trynig to use ediff to find a difference in one buffer and 
use that information to edit another buffer. 

The files are split vertically. Howevewr I do not know how to jump 
from one difference to the next. I hear about using n and p to jump 
but cannot because the buffers are writable.

What I would like to do is jump to the next diff in one buffer in sync 
with a jump in the other buffer so that I am automaticall looking at 
the same region in both.

Haines Brown

Re: How to jump with ediff

[tomas]

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On Fri, Aug 26, 2022 at 09:35:05AM -0400, Haines Brown wrote:
> I'm trynig to use ediff to find a difference in one buffer and 
> use that information to edit another buffer. 
> 
> The files are split vertically. Howevewr I do not know how to jump 
> from one difference to the next. I hear about using n and p to jump 
> but cannot because the buffers are writable.

Ah. You have to focus on that little "control" frame to enter those
commands (you can make it larger by typing "?" in there). Think of
it like your TV's remote control :)

(BTW: I never tried on a TTY: how does it work there?)

Cheers
-- 
t

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Re: How to jump with ediff

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2022 16:07:31 +0200
> From: <tomas@tuxteam.de>
> 
> Ah. You have to focus on that little "control" frame to enter those
> commands (you can make it larger by typing "?" in there). Think of
> it like your TV's remote control :)
> 
> (BTW: I never tried on a TTY: how does it work there?)

It's a window instead of a frame.

Re: How to jump with ediff

[tomas]

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On Fri, Aug 26, 2022 at 05:23:04PM +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2022 16:07:31 +0200
> > From: <tomas@tuxteam.de>
> > 
> > Ah. You have to focus on that little "control" frame to enter those
> > commands (you can make it larger by typing "?" in there). Think of
> > it like your TV's remote control :)
> > 
> > (BTW: I never tried on a TTY: how does it work there?)
> 
> It's a window instead of a frame.

Thanks :)

(Now I'm back from $JOB I'll try it myself, so next time I can be more
helpful)

Cheers
-- 
t

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Re: How to jump with ediff

[Michael Heerdegen]

<tomas@tuxteam.de> writes:

> > > (BTW: I never tried on a TTY: how does it work there?)
> > 
> > It's a window instead of a frame.

Also see `ediff-window-setup-function'.

Michael.

How to jump with ediff

[Haines Brown]

I split a buffer horizontally and want to use ediff to find a
difference in a file displayed in one window and use that
information to edit a version of that file displayed in the other 
window. 

Simple enough but I do not know how to jump from one difference to the 
next. I read that this is done with the n and p keys, but I cannot do 
that because the files are writable. How does one jump from one 
diff to the next in ediff? Do I have to make the window in which I 
view a diff unwritable and the window in which I edit the file writable?

What I would ideally like to do is jump to the next diff in one window 
in sync with an automatic movement on the other window to the same 
position so that information on one file can be used to edit the 
other. Are synced jumps possible?

Haines Brown

How to jump with ediff

[Haines Brown]

I split a buffer horizontally and want to use ediff to find a 
difference in a file displayed in one window and to use that 
information to edit a file displayed in the other window.

However I do not know how to jump from one diff to the next. I read 
that it is done with the n and p keys, but I cannot do it because the 
file is writable. To act on differences a file must be writable.

What I would like to do is jump to the next diff in one window in sync 
with a jump to that position in in the other window so that I am 
automaticall looking at the same region in both so that I can can use 
what I see in own to edit th other. Are synced jumps possible?

Haines Brown

Re: How to jump with ediff

[Stefan Monnier via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor]

> However I do not know how to jump from one diff to the next. I read 
> that it is done with the n and p keys, but I cannot do it because the 
> file is writable. To act on differences a file must be writable.

`n` is indeed the key to use, but you have to use it in the Ediff
control window.


        Stefan

Re: How to jump with ediff

[Haines Brown]

On Sun, Aug 28, 2022 at 11:23:30AM -0400, Stefan Monnier via Users 
list for the GNU Emacs text editor wrote: 

> > However I do not know how to jump from one diff to the next. I read 
> > that it is done with the n and p keys, but I cannot do it because the 
> > file is writable. To act on differences a file must be writable.
> 
> `n` is indeed the key to use, but you have to use it in the Ediff
> control window.
> 
> 
>         Stefan

Stefan, thank you, but you loose me. What is a "control window"? I'm 
running ediff in emacs. With the Mx-ediff command Emacs displays two 
vertical windows. One displays one file and the other window displays 
the other file. There is no "Ediff control window" that I can see.

I should note that I'm running Devuan (Debian without systemd) and I 
have no desktop environment. 

Haines

Re: How to jump with ediff

[Stefan Monnier via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor]

> Stefan, thank you, but you loose me. What is a "control window"? I'm 
> running ediff in emacs. With the Mx-ediff command Emacs displays two 
> vertical windows. One displays one file and the other window displays 
> the other file. There is no "Ediff control window" that I can see.

Hmm... you're supposed to get a third window (normally shown in
a small separate Emacs frame) showing a buffer called "*Ediff Control
Panel*".  The modeline doesn't show the buffer name, tho.  And the frame
is quite small, something line 2 lines by 20 columns or so (one line is
the mode line which just shows how many diffs were found).


        Stefan

Re: How to jump with ediff

[Gregory Heytings]

>> Stefan, thank you, but you loose me. What is a "control window"? I'm 
>> running ediff in emacs. With the Mx-ediff command Emacs displays two 
>> vertical windows. One displays one file and the other window displays 
>> the other file. There is no "Ediff control window" that I can see.
>
> Hmm... you're supposed to get a third window (normally shown in a small 
> separate Emacs frame) showing a buffer called "*Ediff Control Panel*". 
> The modeline doesn't show the buffer name, tho.  And the frame is quite 
> small, something line 2 lines by 20 columns or so (one line is the mode 
> line which just shows how many diffs were found).
>

IMO that separate Ediff Control Panel frame is an unfortunate default.

Haines, add the following to your init file, and you'll see the Ediff 
Control Panel at the bottom of the frame:

(setq ediff-window-setup-function #'ediff-setup-windows-plain)

Re: How to jump with ediff

[Haines Brown]

On Sun, Aug 28, 2022 at 02:38:24PM -0400, Stefan Monnier via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor wrote:
> > Stefan, thank you, but you loose me. What is a "control window"? I'm 
> > running ediff in emacs. With the Mx-ediff command Emacs displays two 
> > vertical windows. One displays one file and the other window displays 
> > the other file. There is no "Ediff control window" that I can see.
> 
> Hmm... you're supposed to get a third window (normally shown in
> a small separate Emacs frame) showing a buffer called "*Ediff Control
> Panel*".  The modeline doesn't show the buffer name, tho.  And the frame
> is quite small, something line 2 lines by 20 columns or so (one line is
> the mode line which just shows how many diffs were found).
> 
>         Stefan

You enouraged me to look a bit further and sure enough. I run emacs FS 
and so never think of anything under except a few old terminals. But I 
now see that there is an ediff a window under emacs. Here the p and 
nxxt commands do work, and the movement in one file is synced with 
that of the other. So my appended question was answered as well. Thank 
you. 

Haines  

Re: How to jump with ediff

[Haines Brown]

On Sun, Aug 28, 2022 at 08:37:43PM +0000, Gregory Heytings wrote:
> 
> > > Stefan, thank you, but you loose me. What is a "control window"? I'm
> > > running ediff in emacs. With the Mx-ediff command Emacs displays two
> > > vertical windows. One displays one file and the other window
> > > displays the other file. There is no "Ediff control window" that I
> > > can see.
> > 
> > Hmm... you're supposed to get a third window (normally shown in a small
> > separate Emacs frame) showing a buffer called "*Ediff Control Panel*".
> > The modeline doesn't show the buffer name, tho.  And the frame is quite
> > small, something line 2 lines by 20 columns or so (one line is the mode
> > line which just shows how many diffs were found).
> > 
> 
> IMO that separate Ediff Control Panel frame is an unfortunate default.
> 
> Haines, add the following to your init file, and you'll see the Ediff
> Control Panel at the bottom of the frame:
> 
> (setq ediff-window-setup-function #'ediff-setup-windows-plain)

Gregory, thanks. I will be trying it out.
 
Haines

Re: How to jump with ediff

[Stefan Monnier via Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor]

> IMO that separate Ediff Control Panel frame is an unfortunate default.

Yes, Ediff's UI is a bit problematic in this respect, indeed.

> (setq ediff-window-setup-function #'ediff-setup-windows-plain)

This will probably help Haines, indeed, but comes with its own set of
problems.  I'd much prefer a mode that dispenses completely with
a "control window/frame/buffer". and uses maybe some prefix key or some
modal interface in the main buffers to access the functionality
currently provided by the separate control buffer.

I think `vdiff` (in GNU ELPA) tries to do something like what I propose,
tho I never really tried to use it (I don't use Ediff very often
either, I usually prefer to look at `diff` output instead, in
`diff-mode`, or otherwise merge the different versions into a single
file with `diff3` and then use `smerge-mode`).


        Stefan