XML Diff and Patch
One of the pieces of software I’ve been involved with for the past months is now up as a demo on gotdotnet.com. The primary purpose of the tool is to be able to quickly detect node-level changes between versions of an XML document, and with enough granularity to support efficient patch and merge scenarios. The patch format can be used for fairly terse delta-encoding to transfer incremental changes across the wire as well. The tool is officially called “XmlDiff and Patch” and is implemented in managed code (sorry, no MSXML version). Currently you can only perform XML Diff through the web page, but the assembly should be available on that site very soon. I think it is considerably better than anything else available today, in terms of both performance and accuracy, and the API is a good fit with the System.Xml libraries, so it should be really easy for any VB/J#/C#/F# programmers to use.
Now I’m off to New Orleans for a week to investigate the pralines, beniets, muffalettas, crawfish, and other foodstuffs. I’ll be sure to call the TIPS hotline often with my reports. Of course, there is the tiny issue of the fourth amendmentin the Bill of Rights, which says “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” Butit’s not even one of the top three basic rights, and besides, crawfish aren’t people. They make high pitched squealing noises when being boiled, but they’re not citizens.