File Diff Viewer

A simple file diff viewer built with PySide2 to do one job: compare the contents of two text files side by side.

What It Does

• Load two files and view them side by side with sync scrolling.
• Highlights differences to make changes easy to spot.

Install

You can install it using pip install diffview (requires Python 3.10) or by copying diffview/diffview.py into your source code, which is compatible with Python versions 3.7 and above.

How to Use

import os
from diffview import DiffViewer

# Create the diff viewer widget
diff_viewer = DiffViewer()

# Load some files into the sidebar for the user to select
diff_viewer.load_files(os.listdir())

# Show the widget
diff_viewer.show()

Or you can load buffers directly

diff_viewer.load_a_view(title='File A', content='abc')
diff_viewer.load_b_view(title='File B', content='abcd')

Note: You can also load files through the UI with the built-in file selection buttons.

Notes

• This works with text files only.
• The diffing logic is basic—line-level differences only. If you need something fancier, you should definitely look elsewhere.

Roadmap

• Multi view scroll
• File selector with last folder selected memory
• Persisten settings: font options, colors, recent files
• Shortcuts: font size (wheelScroll + ctrl)
• Line wrap option
• Tests
• Line number?
• Auto-Reload files?
• Status for file changes?