Internal File Diff for EG

[fja]

Hello!

I would suggest to integrate a file diff functionality in EG. Currently EG relies on external tools that need to be configured ... this is fine... but in certain companys it is just wimmering and wineing you hear when you ask for some 3rd party software.

So something simple that ships with EG would be just great! 🙂

Cheers

fja 

[PaigeMiller]

While you may have a good idea, I'm really lost at what the problem is, and lost at what "file diff functionality" means to you. What files? Could you give an example? Can you explain why PROC COMPARE isn't what you need?

[fja]

Hello!

Thank you very much for your reply. I am happy to elaborate

I am talking about a the difference in text files, of sas programs to be more precise.

An example of the usage would be that you have come up with two different versions/approaches to tackle a problem codewise ... and now want the differences between these two pieces of code being highlighted. ... much like you would do it in a versioning context.

Now SAS EG has such a functionality integrated - you select two 'program tasks' and find 'diff' in the context menu - but this relies on external programs to do the diff for you. Now I wonder if one could not leverage the existing versioning mechanism to show the difference between the two text files/programs selected.

Dedicated programs for file diffing come up with very nifty presentations of the results, but this would not be necessary in the first place IMHO. A simple mechanism to show the differnences (like in versioning tools like git/svn/cvs) would suffice.

Cheers

fja

[AhmedAl_Attar]

Hi @fja 

Not sure which version of SAS Enterprise Guide you are using, but EG version 8.2+ has built-in Remote GIT Repository Integration.

Check this paper for details and illustrations

Git for the SAS® Programmer: Using Source Control to Organize Your Code and Collaborate with Others

If you happen to have access to your company's private GitHub repositories, the you would be able to configure EG to work with it

Hope this helps

[SASKiwi]

These days program code compares are provided by software version control tools. As @AhmedAl_Attar suggests you could use EG's GIT integration, or you could use tools like MS Visual Studio which can do versioning and comparing independent of EG - this is the approach we use.

[fja]

Thank you two for your kind remarks!

@AhmedAl_Attar : Thank you very much for the pointer. I am familiar with that feature and with version control systems ... nevertheless I was not aware, that such a nice introductory paper exists.

@SASKiwi : Currently the git integration in EG (we use 8.2) is limited to internal SAS programs. While a standalone version of git can be used to compare arbritary files (even unversioned ones) with 

git diff a.txt b.txt

the internal version of EG does not seem to be capable of that. This is what I am aiming at.  Neither is - TMBK - that git implementation accessible as an standalone programm, so you cannot configure it as a file diff programm to be used via the options. 

Knowing the limitations in practice where you cannot freely choose the software being implemented I suggested to implement the leverage of the _internal_ git diff for this in my first posting.

Again thank you very much for your suggestions.

fja

[Kurt_Bremser]

Although I support your idea, I do not think it will ever be implemented, as EG is already a dead end (it's no longer supported by Viya, which is the future of SAS).

[Wilbram-SAS]

Thank you for your product suggestion for SAS Enterprise Guide. We have evaluated your suggestion and at this moment in time there are no plans to implement this in the foreseeable future.