April 2008
This release is a new WinMerge stable release. This release replaces earlier 2.6.x releases as a recommended release.
Compared to 2.6.x releases there are many improvements done for usability of WinMerge. Improved UTF-8 file detection and opening binary files are just couple of examples. Another huge improvement is the new localization system, which allows a lot easier translation of WinMerge.
Please submit bug reports to our bug-tracker.
For a complete changelog, see the ChangeLog.txt
in Docs folder in WinMerge program folder.
Until now WinMerge could not detect UTF-8 files without BOM bytes as UTF-8 files. Opening such files into WinMerge caused parts of files shown improperly at the screen. Now UTF-8 files without BOM bytes are properly detected and shown.
WinMerge could not earlier show files it detected as binary files. And only compare result for such files was "binary files are identical" or "binary files are different". Now WinMerge shows all files in file compare. Even binary files. Bytes that have no visual presentation (character) are shown as byte value.
NOTE: WinMerge is not a binary file editor. Do not damage your binary files!
Oldest open feature request got implemented! WinMerge can now open "conflict files" that several version control systems (CVS, Subversion, ...) output. Conflict file is separated to two files "theirs" and "mine" and shown in normal file compare for merge.
The most important change in this release is the new localization system. The new system is based on widely used PO files. PO files are text files that have both original (English) text and translated text together. As PO files are text files they are easy to edit. Also there is no anymore any kind of compiling needed for updating the files. So one can just edit the file and re-start WinMerge to test changes done.
See WinMerge's development wiki for more information about translations: http://winmerge.org/Wiki/Translations
In short: PO files have replaced LANG files in Languages-subfolder.
Several translations were again updated. We expect things to improve with translation statuses, as new system is so much easier to use.
New Croatian and Portuguese translations were added.
Old IE version can cause crashes when handling archive files.
Workaround: If WinMerge crashes when handling archives, consider updating IE to version 6.0 or later.
There is no way to specify the codepage for a particular file.
Workaround: Specify the default codepages for all files in Edit->Options->Codepage->Custom codepage.
There is no 3-way merge. #990464
Filters only applied when using full compare
Line filtering is only applied in folder compare when using Full Contents-compare method.
If you are using any other compare method, line filters are not applied. Files marked different in folder compare can get status changed to identical when opening them to file compare.
Some plugins shipped with WinMerge require Visual Basic runtime library to work
Workaround: You can download the required file msvbvm60.dll
or use the Run-Time Redistribution Pack from Microsoft.
Workaround 2: If you don't need the plugin, you can safely remove it.
VSS integration cannot add new files to VSS
If you need to add a new file, you must add it via VSS client program.
Unset WinMerge integration from ClearCase
To remove WinMerge integration, you'll need to edit one file by hand:
C:\Program Files\Rational\ClearCaselib\mgrs\map in there to editor programtext_file_delta xcompare", containing "WinMergeU.exe"text_file_delta xcompare", containing "cleardiffmrg.exe"