[Suggestion] Open BC instead of the built in diff tool

[wayneljw]

Thanks ScooterSoftware for this plugin.

In the last part of the README.md, "Open Compare" mentioned that we can click the "refresh-like" button to open the current diff window in BC.

I wish we could have a setting in this extension that would completely replace the built in diff tool, and "directly" open BC without pressing that button.

I usually use the "SFTP" extension "diff with remote" to compare my local files with the remote ones. However, there is no way I can use BC as the default tool. I tried many extensions without success. This extension, however, is the closest to what I need --- but still need to press one button.

[boramis]

We've just released v1.0.2 with an off-by-default setting to replace VSCode's Diff Editor. It's a little janky in that it watches for the Diff Editor tab to be opened, then closes it and launches BC, but it should work. We tried overriding the existing commands to just call into our code instead, but ran into issues trying to synchronize the state and command visibility.

[boramis]

Turns out the feature was less well baked than we'd hoped. We've now released v1.0.3 with the support for this removed. Reopening in case we can figure out how to make it better polished.

[wayneljw]

Thank you @boramis .
I just tried v1.0.2 and was very happy with this new feature.
Not sure what happened causing v1.0.3 to remove this?

Updated:
Oh yes! I see "Error: an error occurred while reading from git" when comparing with the gif history. (in 1.0.2, when enabling this function)
However, this error message still appears in 1.0.3 when I manually click the beyond compare icon in the default diff view. So I guess this issue may have existed since 1.0.1 when diff in git?

[boramis]

There were several different issues with it, though the reason we pushed out the 1.0.3 release as quickly as we did was primarily because it wasn't supposed to be enabled by default. Other than that:

1. It doesn't support VS Code's virtual file system APIs, so it only works for comparisons with local files backing them (Extension doesn't use custom URIs #10).
2. It was triggering automatically when using the "Timeline" panel (1.0.2 bug: Forced prompt comparison #8). Normally it's easy to navigate from commit to commit there, but with the way we implemented it, it was far too disruptive and basically made that panel unusable. It's quite likely there are other places where it would be used that weren't really intended. Ideally we'd just be an embedded panel ourselves in that case, though since we're not a Chromium app, I don't see us being able to do that, and especially not across all of Windows/macOS/Linux.
3. Even in the new release, the "Open with Beyond Compare" button in the Diff Editor doesn't work correctly with the Diff panel in certain circumstances (Diff Editor "Open Diff in Beyond Compare" button doesn't work correctly from Timeline view #9).

I'm not sure if the error you're seeing is related to one of the above or a separate issue yet.

Ultimately it came down to the fact that we don't use VS Code ourselves, and got too ambitious too quickly. I would like to see the feature come back, but it requires a lot more polish, and primary development has been done by a temporary employee so I can't guess at if/when that might happen.

[boramis]

Updated: Oh yes! I see "Error: an error occurred while reading from git" when comparing with the gif history. (in 1.0.2, when enabling this function) However, this error message still appears in 1.0.3 when I manually click the beyond compare icon in the default diff view. So I guess this issue may have existed since 1.0.1 when diff in git?

wayneljw We've released v1.0.5 that should fix the issue you're seeing with the Git diff error, but we weren't sure of the exact steps you were taking for it, so if it still exists please enter a new issue for it.