range-diff: use dim/bold cues to improve dual color mode

It *is* a confusing thing to look at a diff of diffs. All too easy is it to mix up whether the -/+ markers refer to the "inner" or the "outer" diff, i.e. whether a `+` indicates that a line was added by either the old or the new diff (or both), or whether the new diff does something different than the old diff. To make things easier to process for normal developers, we introduced the dual color mode which colors the lines according to the commit diff, i.e. lines that are added by a commit (whether old, new, or both) are colored in green. In non-dual color mode, the lines would be colored according to the outer diff: if the old commit added a line, it would be colored red (because that line addition is only present in the first commit range that was specified on the command-line, i.e. the "old" commit, but not in the second commit range, i.e. the "new" commit). However, this dual color mode is still not making things clear enough, as we are looking at two levels of diffs, and we still only pick a color according to *one* of them (the outer diff marker is colored differently, of course, but in particular with deep indentation, it is easy to lose track of that outer diff marker's background color). Therefore, let's add another dimension to the mix. Still use green/red/normal according to the commit diffs, but now also dim the lines that were only in the old commit, and use bold face for the lines that are only in the new commit. That way, it is much easier not to lose track of, say, when we are looking at a line that was added in the previous iteration of a patch series but the new iteration adds a slightly different version: the obsolete change will be dimmed, the current version of the patch will be bold. At least this developer has a much easier time reading the range-diffs that way. Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <johannes.schindelin@gmx.de> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

Johannes Schindelin committed Aug 13, 2018 at 04:33 UTC a7be92acd96007bcb4c1fd4e8602eeb5115312c2
5 files changed +52 -13
Documentation/config.txt
+4 -2
@@ -1193,8 +1193,10 @@ color.diff.<slot>::
1193 (highlighting whitespace errors), `oldMoved` (deleted lines),
1194 `newMoved` (added lines), `oldMovedDimmed`, `oldMovedAlternative`,
1195 `oldMovedAlternativeDimmed`, `newMovedDimmed`, `newMovedAlternative`
1196 - and `newMovedAlternativeDimmed` (See the '<mode>'
1197 - setting of '--color-moved' in linkgit:git-diff[1] for details).
1196 + `newMovedAlternativeDimmed` (See the '<mode>'
1197 + setting of '--color-moved' in linkgit:git-diff[1] for details),
1198 + `contextDimmed`, `oldDimmed`, `newDimmed`, `contextBold`,
1199 + `oldBold`, and `newBold` (see linkgit:git-range-diff[1] for details).
1200
1201 color.decorate.<slot>::
1202 Use customized color for 'git log --decorate' output. `<slot>` is one
Documentation/git-range-diff.txt
+13 -4
@@ -35,10 +35,19 @@ OPTIONS
35 When the commit diffs differ, `git range-diff` recreates the
36 original diffs' coloring, and adds outer -/+ diff markers with
37 the *background* being red/green to make it easier to see e.g.
38 - when there was a change in what exact lines were added. This is
39 - known to `range-diff` as "dual coloring". Use `--no-dual-color`
40 - to revert to color all lines according to the outer diff markers
41 - (and completely ignore the inner diff when it comes to color).
38 + when there was a change in what exact lines were added.
39 ++
40 +Additionally, the commit diff lines that are only present in the first commit
41 +range are shown "dimmed" (this can be overridden using the `color.diff.<slot>`
42 +config setting where `<slot>` is one of `contextDimmed`, `oldDimmed` and
43 +`newDimmed`), and the commit diff lines that are only present in the second
44 +commit range are shown in bold (which can be overridden using the config
45 +settings `color.diff.<slot>` with `<slot>` being one of `contextBold`,
46 +`oldBold` or `newBold`).
47 ++
48 +This is known to `range-diff` as "dual coloring". Use `--no-dual-color`
49 +to revert to color all lines according to the outer diff markers
50 +(and completely ignore the inner diff when it comes to color).
51
52 --creation-factor=<percent>::
53 Set the creation/deletion cost fudge factor to `<percent>`.
color.h
+6
@@ -36,6 +36,12 @@ struct strbuf;
36 #define GIT_COLOR_BOLD_BLUE "\033[1;34m"
37 #define GIT_COLOR_BOLD_MAGENTA "\033[1;35m"
38 #define GIT_COLOR_BOLD_CYAN "\033[1;36m"
39 +#define GIT_COLOR_FAINT_RED "\033[2;31m"
40 +#define GIT_COLOR_FAINT_GREEN "\033[2;32m"
41 +#define GIT_COLOR_FAINT_YELLOW "\033[2;33m"
42 +#define GIT_COLOR_FAINT_BLUE "\033[2;34m"
43 +#define GIT_COLOR_FAINT_MAGENTA "\033[2;35m"
44 +#define GIT_COLOR_FAINT_CYAN "\033[2;36m"
45 #define GIT_COLOR_BG_RED "\033[41m"
46 #define GIT_COLOR_BG_GREEN "\033[42m"
47 #define GIT_COLOR_BG_YELLOW "\033[43m"
diff.c
+22 -6
@@ -70,6 +70,12 @@ static char diff_colors[][COLOR_MAXLEN] = {
70 GIT_COLOR_BOLD_YELLOW, /* NEW_MOVED ALTERNATIVE */
71 GIT_COLOR_FAINT, /* NEW_MOVED_DIM */
72 GIT_COLOR_FAINT_ITALIC, /* NEW_MOVED_ALTERNATIVE_DIM */
73 + GIT_COLOR_FAINT, /* CONTEXT_DIM */
74 + GIT_COLOR_FAINT_RED, /* OLD_DIM */
75 + GIT_COLOR_FAINT_GREEN, /* NEW_DIM */
76 + GIT_COLOR_BOLD, /* CONTEXT_BOLD */
77 + GIT_COLOR_BOLD_RED, /* OLD_BOLD */
78 + GIT_COLOR_BOLD_GREEN, /* NEW_BOLD */
79 };
80
81 static const char *color_diff_slots[] = {
@@ -89,6 +95,12 @@ static const char *color_diff_slots[] = {
95 [DIFF_FILE_NEW_MOVED_ALT] = "newMovedAlternative",
96 [DIFF_FILE_NEW_MOVED_DIM] = "newMovedDimmed",
97 [DIFF_FILE_NEW_MOVED_ALT_DIM] = "newMovedAlternativeDimmed",
98 + [DIFF_CONTEXT_DIM] = "contextDimmed",
99 + [DIFF_FILE_OLD_DIM] = "oldDimmed",
100 + [DIFF_FILE_NEW_DIM] = "newDimmed",
101 + [DIFF_CONTEXT_BOLD] = "contextBold",
102 + [DIFF_FILE_OLD_BOLD] = "oldBold",
103 + [DIFF_FILE_NEW_BOLD] = "newBold",
104 };
105
106 static NORETURN void die_want_option(const char *option_name)
@@ -1294,11 +1306,13 @@ static void emit_diff_symbol_from_struct(struct diff_options *o,
1306
1307 set_sign = set;
1308 if (c == '-')
1297 - set = diff_get_color_opt(o, DIFF_FILE_OLD);
1309 + set = diff_get_color_opt(o, DIFF_FILE_OLD_BOLD);
1310 else if (c == '@')
1311 set = diff_get_color_opt(o, DIFF_FRAGINFO);
1300 - else if (c != '+')
1301 - set = diff_get_color_opt(o, DIFF_CONTEXT);
1312 + else if (c == '+')
1313 + set = diff_get_color_opt(o, DIFF_FILE_NEW_BOLD);
1314 + else
1315 + set = diff_get_color_opt(o, DIFF_CONTEXT_BOLD);
1316 flags &= ~DIFF_SYMBOL_CONTENT_WS_MASK;
1317 }
1318 emit_line_ws_markup(o, set, reset, line, len, set_sign, '+',
@@ -1336,11 +1350,13 @@ static void emit_diff_symbol_from_struct(struct diff_options *o,
1350
1351 set_sign = set;
1352 if (c == '+')
1339 - set = diff_get_color_opt(o, DIFF_FILE_NEW);
1353 + set = diff_get_color_opt(o, DIFF_FILE_NEW_DIM);
1354 else if (c == '@')
1355 set = diff_get_color_opt(o, DIFF_FRAGINFO);
1342 - else if (c != '-')
1343 - set = diff_get_color_opt(o, DIFF_CONTEXT);
1356 + else if (c == '-')
1357 + set = diff_get_color_opt(o, DIFF_FILE_OLD_DIM);
1358 + else
1359 + set = diff_get_color_opt(o, DIFF_CONTEXT_DIM);
1360 }
1361 emit_line_ws_markup(o, set, reset, line, len, set_sign, '-',
1362 flags & DIFF_SYMBOL_CONTENT_WS_MASK, 0);
diff.h
+7 -1
@@ -248,7 +248,13 @@ enum color_diff {
248 DIFF_FILE_NEW_MOVED = 13,
249 DIFF_FILE_NEW_MOVED_ALT = 14,
250 DIFF_FILE_NEW_MOVED_DIM = 15,
251 - DIFF_FILE_NEW_MOVED_ALT_DIM = 16
251 + DIFF_FILE_NEW_MOVED_ALT_DIM = 16,
252 + DIFF_CONTEXT_DIM = 17,
253 + DIFF_FILE_OLD_DIM = 18,
254 + DIFF_FILE_NEW_DIM = 19,
255 + DIFF_CONTEXT_BOLD = 20,
256 + DIFF_FILE_OLD_BOLD = 21,
257 + DIFF_FILE_NEW_BOLD = 22,
258 };
259 const char *diff_get_color(int diff_use_color, enum color_diff ix);
260 #define diff_get_color_opt(o, ix) \