Re: Type-specific diff & patch

Stefan Monnier wrote:
> Agreed.  Also it's crucial that the patch and diff used to build up the
> internal deltas used to store patches in the archive be perfect inverses of
> each other.
> E.g. using "diff -b" is not an option, even for files for which changes in
> whitespace is not significant.
> In other words, the compression of patches (based on diff) should be lossless.
>
>   
That's critical for Arch-1 style storage and for a lot of other things 
but maybe
there's more to the story, too.

A common use for patching is to do merging.   Maybe it is a mistake to
insist that the way precise diffs are computed, inverted, composed, and
applied is the only way merges get done.

-t