Working with Diff Viewer

Prerequisites

If you're not familiar with how Projects and Versions work in BitEdit, you should consider first getting a good read on that in our Projects and Versions FAQ.

To fully utilize the Diff Viewer utility, you need the Project System enabled in Settings, so first make sure that it is not disabled in Options: the X-crossed option below should not be selected:

When to use Diff Viewer

The Diff Viewer is used when you want to compare 2 different versions of the same binary file against each other (as opposed to comparing it against the original (stock) file, like BitEdit usually operates)

Preparing two versions to compare

Skip this if you already use Version System, and have two different versions prepared, for which you want to browse the differences

1. After opening the binary file, make some changes to some maps

2. Open the Version Control panel by hitting Ctrl+Alt+V or, alternatively, by using the View menu

3. Create a version and call it, for example, "1"

   

4. Return to original file by clicking the "Original" button in the Version Control panel

   

5. Make some changes in some other maps, and create another version, say, "2"

   

Launching Diff Viewer

Invoke the Diff Viewer utility (Main page of the Ribbon), then select the two versions you wanted to compare. Note how you can only compare current against original if the Project system is not enabled.

Navigating the diff

• Only the maps that have at least some differences are shown in the Diff Tree

• Selecting an element in the Diff Tree shows the corresponding data viewer in the the Diff Viewer to the right of the Diff Tree

• If you select DTC in the Diff Tree, only the codes that have different states in the two versions you're comparing, will be shown

Good practices and Notes

• As the Diff Viewer works with snapshots, it will not track changes made after initializing the window

• Don't forget to close the Diff Viewer when it is no longer needed, to reduce memory consumption