FOSS Advent Calendar - Door 15: See the Logic, Not Just the Lines with Difftastic
Forget confusing text diffs. Difftastic is a brilliant open-source tool that shows the true intent of your code changes. It understands programming syntax, ignores formatting noise, and highlights semantic differences in your commits, perfect for clear code reviews and complex refactorings. It acts like X-Ray for your code, detecting when you’ve moved a function or changed logic, not just edited text. By ignoring formatting changes, it shows what actually changed, not what your autoformatter did. Plus, it runs entirely offline, so your code never leaves your machine, and it supports over 50 languages and formats, from Python and Rust to JSON and Markdown.
Pro tip: Integrate it as your Git difftool to review pull requests with clarity and instantly grasp the developer’s intent.
Link:
https://github.com/Wilfred/difftastic
What would you clarify first with a diff tool that shows the intended change?
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