GitHub Adds Support For Diffing 3D Files

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GitHub Adds Support For Diffing 3D Files

Posted by Soulskill on Tuesday September 17, 2013 @03:15PM from the still-waiting-on-4D-file-diffs dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A few months after releasing support for viewing models in .STL format, GitHub just added support for viewing changes to .STL formatted 3D models directly in the browser. 'How does this work? We take both versions of the model, and using binary space partitioning, we compute the added, removed, and unchanged parts. This is done using csgtool, a C library paired with a Ruby gem via FFI. These pieces are cached and displayed by the 3D viewer we already have, though we color them differently and play with their transparency to help illustrate the changes.'"

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And Yet... by Luthair · 2013-09-17 15:16 · Score: 5, Insightful

Still no side-by-side diff for plain old text files.
1. Re:And Yet... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-17 15:35 · Score: 0
  
  Why would you need that as a service of a web site when there are so many file compare utilities you could use yourself?
2. Re:And Yet... by pimpsoftcom · 2013-09-17 15:36 · Score: 2
  
  The people on github are really smart; Just stupid when it comes to common sense. I'm sure one of the github spies is reading this now, cursing my name or otherwise feeling insulted despite my clear attempt at humor, and adding diffing of plain files to the backlog for the next sprint.
  
  --
  - d
3. Re:And Yet... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-17 15:41 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Why would you use github when you could setup your own git master?
4. Re:And Yet... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-17 15:45 · Score: 0
  
  Because using github or bitbucket is better for those that don't want to invest into a server right away. Although github is probably not the most ideal one for personal projects since from my understanding it's all public. Yeah, you COULD build your own SVN server but really, why would you need to when there are services already available that suits your needs? Plus, just because you know how to program doesn't mean that you know how to set all of this up, which is overly complex and poorly documented to begin with. I'd have to go on a whim and say that most programmers don't use linux and windows server is too expensive to jump into. github and bitbucket is ready to use with just a simple registration. Install SourceTree and you're good to go. No need to go the long way with tortoisesvn or any of that. Again, it's more than ideal for startups.
5. Re:And Yet... by dryeo · 2013-09-17 15:59 · Score: 1
  
  That and no way to download a change set as a simple unified diff. Sometimes don't want to clone a huge project,especially when short of bandwidth.
  
  --
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
6. Re:And Yet... by girlintraining · 2013-09-17 16:14 · Score: 0
  
  Still no side-by-side diff for plain old text files.
  Hey now, be fair. It's a lot harder to write a 7 line perl script to run 'diff' and output it to a web browser than to write a complex algorithm to show changes to a 3D model. I mean, have you ever tried coding in Perl? It's like rocket science and stuf--*chokes*
  Gaaaakk. Sorry, overdid the snark again. Need to go drink some water to wash out the taste now...
  
  --
  #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
7. Re:And Yet... by arthur.gunn · 2013-09-17 16:47 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  You certainly can!
  Visit your repo page +"/compare" to setup the revisions you want to diff.
  Or just construct the url:
  https://github.com/gunn/ember.js/compare/emberjs:8446b121d8c635ebf...ember-libraries.diff
8. Re:And Yet... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-17 17:32 · Score: 0
  
  Your comment was funny until you went "full retard" by (a) explaining the joke, and (b) trying to make it clear that you think you're too smart for that cool-aid.
  tl;dr: Self-deprecating humor is funny, and self-righteous humor is not.
9. Re:And Yet... by dryeo · 2013-09-17 19:08 · Score: 1
  
  Thanks, I'll change my complaint to "it is non-obvious how to create a diff from a change set"
  
  --
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
10. Re:And Yet... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-17 19:28 · Score: 0
  
  git difftool --tool=vimdiff --no-prompt HEAD
11. Re:And Yet... by IamTheRealMike · 2013-09-17 20:38 · Score: 1
  
  Has anyone ever discovered that feature without someone else telling them about it? I'm guessing the answer is no.
12. Re:And Yet... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-17 21:00 · Score: 1
  
  Considering it's the big green button near the top of the page, yes, probably.
13. Re:And Yet... by Skylinux · 2013-09-17 21:18 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  This is git, not SVN.
  I have the complete and fully functioning repo on my dev machine so GitHub can go boom right now and I would not really care.
  
  --
  Everyone who buys Wild Hunt will receive 16 specially prepared DLCs absolutely for free, regardless of platform.
14. Re:And Yet... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-17 23:42 · Score: 0
  
  As another poster pointed out, you can already do that with the big green button at the top.
  I'd like to point out that you can also use 'git clone --depth=1' to checkout a repo without downloading it's entire backhistory. Generally this won't use any more bandwidth than downloading the tarball of that revision.
15. Re:And Yet... by mwvdlee · 2013-09-18 00:15 · Score: 1
  
  And your comment was funny until "until".
  
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  Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
16. Re:And Yet... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-18 02:00 · Score: 0
  
  and your comment wasn't funny at all
17. Re:And Yet... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-18 04:22 · Score: 0
  
  > I hope that they keep good backups
  A Git repository IS a good backup!
18. Re:And Yet... by tobiasly · 2013-09-18 05:05 · Score: 1
  
  You certainly can!
  Visit your repo page +"/compare" to setup the revisions you want to diff.
  Or just construct the url:
  https://github.com/gunn/ember.js/compare/emberjs:8446b121d8c635ebf...ember-libraries.diff
  In other words, using GitHub is every bit as transparent and consistent as the git command line! It's a feature...
19. Re:And Yet... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-18 05:14 · Score: 0
  
  If you want private repos on github you have to pay
Future filetypes? by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-17 15:48 · Score: 0

Perhaps .obj, .blend, .md3, . iqm, etc
Another cool thing would be image diff viewing. Shouldn't be too hard to do some fancy adjust transparency of two images overlapping eachother with a slider to see the diffs.
1. Re:Future filetypes? by Mutatorr · 2013-09-17 17:42 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Another cool thing would be image diff viewing. Shouldn't be too hard to do some fancy adjust transparency of two images overlapping eachother with a slider to see the diffs.
  Image diffing is already a thing: https://github.com/blog/817-behold-image-view-modes
  
  --
  ;D
2. Re:Future filetypes? by X0563511 · 2013-09-18 04:01 · Score: 1
  
  Not sure how .blend would work unless you disable compression. I don't know enough about other formats to say anything about them though (isn't .obj just point cloud data with connections?)
  
  --
  For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
offline by Weezul · 2013-09-17 20:43 · Score: 1

Real question : Is the tool that crates these diffs open source?
It'd be pretty lame to want to diff a couple revisions but need to push the changes to the public to see the diff.

--
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
1. Re:offline by Mutatorr · 2013-09-18 06:45 · Score: 1
  
  Yep, it's https://github.com/sshirokov/csgtool
  
  --
  ;D
Github user at work by Anonymous Coward · 2013-09-17 20:59 · Score: 0

Nice. I just hoped they would implement a diff tool for Excel sheets next. Also a bit more intuitive output on branch comparison would help, as currently it just lists some commits in order by date. One can not see, which commit is done at which branch. Or perhaps it is just me not understanding the logic.
1. Re:Github user at work by Dr_Barnowl · 2013-09-17 21:33 · Score: 1
  
  For Excel diffs, a traditional diff program with a conversion shim is useful.
  I've been a long time user of Beyond Compare 3 which supports pre and post diff / merge transform steps ; not OSS or FreeBeer but very capable and well worth the pro / cross platform license cost IMHO.