A common task among programmers, especially those working in a team, is to determine differences between various versions of the same code. This can be a very time consuming task which, when done by hand, is far from accurate.
Programmer Studio does not include file comparison tools. Instead it provides a conduit to external utilities which output results in one of two recognized formats. Using an external utility has the distinct advantage of allowing the user to determine which of the many tools available to use, while still providing a standard visual interface to the results generated
When using file compare for the first time, Programmer Studio will prompt the user to select which compare utility to use, FC or DIFF. To change this at any time, use the File Compare category in the Options, Preferences dialog box.
This uses the standard file compare utility installed as part of the Microsoft Windows operating system. FC is a good utility for comparing files reporting general differences, but lacks the accuracy of utilities written specifically for comparing line based files.
DIFF is a popular utility among UNIX users which has been ported to many non-UNIX platforms, including Windows. DIFF is a far more sophisticated "differencing" utility then FC, providing a number of additional options to generate a very accurate list of differences.
A version of DIFF is installed with Programmer Studio in the unsup sub-directory.