August 2008
This is a new WinMerge stable release which is recommended and replaces earlier 2.6.x versions.
Compared to the 2.6.x releases, there are many improvements beneficial to the usage of WinMerge. Some areas of improvement include: Improved UTF-8 file detection and opening of binary files. Another significant improvement is the new localization system. This simplifies the translation process of WinMerge.
Please submit bug reports to our bug-tracker.
For a complete changelog history, see the ChangeLog.txt
file located in the Docs
folder under the WinMerge program folder.
Several translations were updated and three new translations were added:
Until now, WinMerge could not detect UTF-8 files without a BOM (Byte-order) marker. Opening such files with WinMerge caused segments of the file(s) to render improperly on the screen. UTF-8 files without BOM bytes are now properly detected and displayed.
WinMerge could not display files it detected as binary in previous versions. WinMerge did however compare the files and returned the results as either "binary files are identical" or "binary files are different." Starting with this release, WinMerge now shows all files in the file compare, including binary files. Bytes that have no visual representation (character) are displayed with its byte value.
NOTE: WinMerge is not a binary file editor. Do not damage your binary files!
The oldest open feature request has finally been implented! WinMerge can now open "conflict files" that several version control systems (CVS, Subversion, etc.) output. A conflict file is seperated into two files?"theirs" and "mine." These files are then displayed for typical file compare and merging.
The most significant change in this release is the new localization system. This new system is based on the widely used PO files. PO files are text files that have both the original (English) text and the translated text together. Since PO files are text files, they are simple and intuitive to edit. WinMerge no longer uses DLL resources for translations and therefore, no compiling will ever be required. One can now edit the PO files on-the-fly, re-start WinMerge, and the changes will be reflected immediately.
See WinMerge web site for more information about translations: http://winmerge.org/translations/
In conclusion: PO files have replaced LANG files in Languages-subfolder.
Several translations were again updated. We expect things to improve with translation statuses, as the new system is so much easier to use.
New Croatian and Portuguese translations were added.
7-zip installed from MSI installer may not work with WinMerge.
Workaround: Use the EXE installer of 7-Zip. See manual 4.5. 7-Zip and Archive Support for more information.
Old IE version can cause crashes when handling archive files.
Workaround: If WinMerge crashes when handling archives, consider updating IE to version 6.0 or later.
Supercopier application causes WinMerge to hang.
Supercopier application causes WinMerge to not exit properly and leaves WinMerge process hang. See the bug reports:
Workaround: Disable the Supercopier when using WinMerge.
There is no way to specify the codepage for a particular file.
Workaround: Specify the default codepages for all files in Edit->Options->Codepage->Custom codepage.
There is no 3-way merge. #990464
Filters only applied when using full compare.
Line filtering is only applied in folder compare when using Full Contents-compare method.
If you are using any other compare method, line filters are not applied. Files marked different in folder compare can get status changed to identical when opening them to file compare.
Some plugins shipped with WinMerge require Visual Basic runtime library to work
Workaround: You can download the required file msvbvm60.dll
or use the Run-Time Redistribution Pack from Microsoft.
Workaround 2: If you don't need the plugin, you can safely remove it.
VSS integration cannot add new files to VSS
If you need to add a new file, you must add it via VSS client program.
Unset WinMerge integration from ClearCase
To remove WinMerge integration, you'll need to edit one file by hand:
C:\Program Files\Rational\ClearCase
lib\mgrs\
map
in there to editor programtext_file_delta xcompare
", containing "WinMergeU.exe
"text_file_delta xcompare
", containing "cleardiffmrg.exe
"