vc-diff in vc-dir

vc-diff in vc-dir

[Nick Roberts]

In dired (Emacs 22.1)  you could use vc-diff (v =) on a single file when
other files were marked by placing the cursor over it.  In vc-dir you always
get a diff of the marked files.  Perhaps this is useful also, but quite often
I start to mark files and then want to see what changes I have in other
edited files.  I can no longer do that without visiting the file in a buffer
first.

Re: vc-diff in vc-dir

[Stefan Monnier]

> In dired (Emacs 22.1)  you could use vc-diff (v =) on a single file
> when other files were marked by placing the cursor over it.  In vc-dir
> you always get a diff of the marked files.  Perhaps this is useful
> also, but quite often I start to mark files and then want to see what
> changes I have in other edited files.  I can no longer do that without
> visiting the file in a buffer first.

Indeed, that lead PCL-CVS developpers to treat diff specially.
See cvs-diff-ignore-marks (historical variable, then generalized to
cvs-invert-ignore-marks).
Thewre's also cvs-mode-toggle-marks which causes the next command to
ignore marks.


        Stefan

Re: vc-diff in vc-dir

[Richard M Stallman]

    In dired (Emacs 22.1)  you could use vc-diff (v =) on a single file when
    other files were marked by placing the cursor over it.  In vc-dir you always
    get a diff of the marked files.  Perhaps this is useful also, but quite often
    I start to mark files and then want to see what changes I have in other
    edited files.  I can no longer do that without visiting the file in a buffer
    first.

Is the operation of diff multiple files useful enough
to make this change a desirable one?