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Replace diff/merge tool in Visual Studio Team System with WinMerge

Paul Bouwer — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 07:22:00 +0000

I have been using Visual Studio Team System 2008 for a while now and am really starting to like the tightly integrated source control and work item functionality. One thing I cannot get used to is the basic diff/merge tool.

Where is the detail ?

The screenshot below demonstrates the basic nature of the diff tool built into Visual Studio Team System. There is no indication of the number of differences between the files being diff’ed or even the actual differences on a particular line …

WinMerge

There is an alternative and it is both open source and free ! From the WinMerge site:

WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows. WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle.

Download WinMerge and install it.

Configure Visual Studio

Open Source Control > Visual Studio Team Foundation under the Tools > Options menu in Visual Studio.

Options > Source Control > Visual Studio Team Foundation" border="0" alt="Tools > Options > Source Control > Visual Studio Team Foundation" src="http://paulbouwer.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/difftool1.png?w=500&h=310" width="500" height="310" />

Click on Configure User Tools … and the Configure User Tools dialog will become available.

Add the WinMerge details for the Compare Tool. Click on the Add … button on the Configure User Tools dialog and configure as per the screenshot below. The arrow button next to the arguments text box exposes details about the information that Visual Studio can provide the tool being configured.

Add the WinMerge details for the Merge Tool. Click on the Add … button on the Configure User Tools dialog and configure as per the screenshot below. The arrow button next to the arguments text box exposes details about the information that Visual Studio can provide the tool being configured.

The Compare and Merge Operations should now be configured to use WinMerge.

WinMerge Command Line Options

WinMerge contains a number of command line options. The following are the ones used in the configuration above.

/e	Enables WinMerge to be closed with a single Esc key press.
/u	Prevents WinMerge from adding either the left or right hand side file path to the Most Recently Used (MRU) list.
/wl	Opens left hand side as read-only.
/wr	Opens right hand side as read-only.
/dl	Description for left hand side title bar.
/dr	Description for right hand side title bar.

Finally a decent diff !

Now a Compare in Visual Studio is more meaningful, It shows the number of differences, their positions within the compared files and actual differences per line. WinMerge supports custom syntax colouring and diff colouring.

Quick Guide: Replace diff/merge tool in Visual Studio Team System with WinMerge

Paul Bouwer — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 05:24:07 +0000

Quick Guide

This quick guide offers a no frills/get things done approach to replacing the diff/merge tool in Visual Studio Team System with WinMerge. There is a detailed guide for those that want to have a little more detail.

Quick Steps

Download and install WinMerge.
Open the Configure User Tools dialog for Team Foundation based source control in Visual Studio. Tools > Options > Source Control > Visual Studio Team Foundation > Configure User Tools
Add the details for the Compare (diff) Tool by clicking on the Add… button. Extension: .* Operation: Compare Command: C:\Program Files\WinMerge\WinMergeU.exe Arguments: /e /u /wl /wr /dl %6 /dr %7 %1 %2
Add the details for the Merge Tool by clicking on the Add… button. Extension: .* Operation: Merge Command: C:\Program Files\WinMerge\WinMergeU.exe Arguments: /e /u /wl /dl %6 /dr %7 %1 %2 %4

Surviving lost LEGO building instructions

Paul Bouwer — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 09:40:24 +0000

My 4 year old son is beginning to play with and appreciate the LEGO sets that I had as a child. These sets span the years 1978 – 1985 and are still mostly in perfect condition except for one thing: building instructions.

Daddy can you fix this ?

My son was holding a single piece of LEGO but I knew exactly what set it came from and what it had looked like before being dismantled.

I searched through the collection of building instructions which had survived numerous moves, fishmoths and the march of time. Then I got that sinking feeling – the building instructions were missing.

Trying to find the relevant pieces in a storage box containing pieces from multiple sets is difficult enough even with the help of building instructions. Without instructions it is almost impossible.

I have the internet …

After calming down to a mild panic in the face of a 4 year old’s tantrum I thought – “LEGO must keep an archive of all their building instructions”. Visiting the Building Instructions section of LEGO’s Customer Service page revealed the following:

We currently have over 3300 building instructions available online which date back to sets packed in 2002.

2002 ? That wasn’t going to help me !

Life savers

Google saved my life and provided me with links to the following sites:

Brickset	Allows searching and graphical browsing of sets by set number, year or theme. Has set information from 1961 – 2010. Contains links to Peeron and BrickLink for building instructions and set inventory.
Peeron	Has scanned building instructions and set inventory information. Allows simple searching and browsing of sets.
Worldbricks	Allows searching and graphical browsing of sets by set number, year or theme. Has set information and scanned building instructions from 1955 – 2009.
BrickLink	Has set inventory information. Allows simple searching and browsing of sets.

Happiness restored

Using the Brickset site I visually browsed through their catalogs and found the set information I was after. I used the Peeron site to find the building instructions and the set inventory. Happiness was restored.

Quick Guide: Migrate a virtual machine from Virtual PC to Hyper-V

Paul Bouwer — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:23:28 +0000

The Microsoft VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) image format is used by the following Microsoft virtualisation technologies: Virtual PC 2007, Virtual Server 2005 R2 and Hyper-V. There are however some subtleties when getting a VHD image from one of these technologies to work on another.

Quick Guide

This quick guide offers a no frills/get things done approach to migrating a virtual machine from Virtual PC to Hyper-V. There is also a detailed guide coming for those that want to know the why and not only the how.

Quick Steps

Hyper-V Manager – Create a new Virtual Machine. Use an existing virtual hard disk and specify the location of the vhd file you want to use.
New > Virtual Machine
Virtual Machine – Uninstall the Virtual Machine Additions which are extensions specific to Virtual PC.
Control Panel > Programs and Features > Virtual Machine Additions > Uninstall
Reboot.
Virtual Machine – Install Integration Services from the Action menu in the Virtual Machine Connection console.
Insert Integration Services Setup Disk > Install (from AutoPlay)
Reboot – updates will install.
Virtual Machine – Without this step the mouse will not work within the virtual machine. Restart will result in the mouse working.
Run > MSConfig > Boot tab > Advanced Options > Detect HAL
Reboot – new hardware will be detected and mouse will work.