Sublime Merge seems to want to run as a git client, fully controling the behavior.
I wanted to use it as a difftool as I already am fine with the git cli. I don't think it can do it? Maybe I could not find the documentation.
The thing is, I used https://www.kaleidoscopeapp.com/ on mac, which is just pure joy. Recently I'm trying to migrate into Windows with WSL and a decent graphical diff / merge tool is my pain point.
I'm in the same boat as you. There was something about integrating SM, but I couldn't get it to work. There are two decent open source choices IMO.
Meld Merge (https://meldmerge.org/) is my favourite, due to being cross-platform. Works well for merging, and `git difftool -d`. Although I cannot get it to run decently on macOS nowadays :(
The custom Mac builds the Meld site points you at work ok for me on Catalina. The biggest issue is there’s no proper command line utility on Mac for some reason, but the person maintaining the unofficial Mac fork documents an incantation that’ll work for git difftool, using open and Meld.app.
I used Beyond Compare starting back in my Delphi days when it was notable for being one of a small handful of popular utilities written in Delphi. It’s a fantastic diff tool but man, it looks super rough in dark mode on Mac and I don’t think that’s been ok for awhile now in a dev tool. The “theming” is really bad.
Beyond Compare is really good on Windows; does the Mac version (which from changelogs appears to be a bit different from the Windows one) have actual problems apart from looking "rough"?
Nothing major in the way of other problems—-think the command line utility might have been a little quirky but that was about it.
But for a visual file comparison tool having giant light regions of the screen in dark mode actually affects functionality in a significant way. The “theming” doesn’t actually theme most of the interface chrome so only minor parts of it go dark, at least last I tried it a month ago.
I haven’t tried it in Windows dark mode. Might work better there. On Mac it’s probably using a Lazarus-based widget library, assuming it’s still written in Delphi, and it probably just doesn’t integrate with the system well.
To be clear, I paid Scooter Software for the pro version back in the 90s and about two years ago again. What I’m saying is I’m licensed for it and still have been looking for other apps because it’s not good enough anymore. I’m not just spitballing, unfortunately :(
I've tried to find a decent modern-looking Windows diff client, and have just settled for VS Code. It's certainly not perfect, but with a few extensions (mainly Compare Folders[1]) it's a workable solution for my needs.
Beyond Compare from Scooter Software is a really good diff/merge tool. It doesn't used 'Modern UI' though, it's just a very polished, fast Classic Windows app.
Definitely not the best looking app, but KDiff3 is the best one I’ve found that can do a 4-panel 3-way merge, i.e. showing original, left, right, and merged.
Kaleidoscope is so nice, and they even released an update last month (I’d assumed it was dead after radio silence for a year, after Black Pixel was bought.)
I wanted to use it as a difftool as I already am fine with the git cli. I don't think it can do it? Maybe I could not find the documentation.
The thing is, I used https://www.kaleidoscopeapp.com/ on mac, which is just pure joy. Recently I'm trying to migrate into Windows with WSL and a decent graphical diff / merge tool is my pain point.
Any suggestions (or a way to use SM via CLI)?