DIFF {listfile=} oldfile, newfile {/w}

(UNIX only) DIFF is an A-Shell front-end to the standard UNIX diff utility, with is much faster and more powerful than the SRCCOM.LIT utility. Like the SRCCOM utility, the standard version lists the lines that are different between the two specified files. The differences between DIFF and SRCCOM are:

•   DIFF ignores differences that are just white space (i.e. a TAB and three spaces is treated as no different than a single space).

•   DIFF has no switches (although you are welcome to add your own!)

•   DIFF uses the UNIX-like space delimiter to separate the two filespec arguments, rather than a comma or comma space to separate the files.

•   DIFF displays its output in the EZTYP viewer rather than just outputting to the screen.

Since DIFF is simply a front-end to the UNIX diff, and since source code is provided (in the SOSLIB), you can easily modify it to take advantage of other features supported in the UNIX diff.

The only switch supported is /w, which causes DIFF to ignore differences comprising white space only.

If you create your own variation of DIFF.LIT, it is recommended that you rename it in order to avoid having it be overwritten by a subsequent A-Shell update.