Welcome to the homepage of Multi-File Compare!

(This page last updated 1/9/2002)

Since this project has just started and there isn't much going on, this will be a small page.

To download files and see other information about the project, go to http://sourceforge.net/projects/multi-fcompare.

Please post any comments, suggestions or problems at the site above! Your feedback is very important. Thanks!

Quick Update

[2002-01-01] Multi-File Compare version 1 beta 1 release.

Introduction

Multi-File Compare is a program I decided to write because of files I've downloaded through various file sharing networks. Very often, I've downloaded media files that have similar names and even the same size, and I need to know if they are the same. In most cases they are, but sometimes they are not. I used Windiff to do the comparisons, but it does more than I need and is sometimes slow, and I've found that I just cannot stop the process in the middle. I also wanted to drag-and-drop the files I want to compare into the window.

Now I know there are programs out there that does similar things, but I wanted very specific things and the reason I'm making the program available to the public is because I cannot believe I'm the only one with this need. Sometimes, I would download the same file 4-5 times in different names but are basically the same file, and I need to know how they compare to each other. Remembering the comparison pairing is a pain and the process is very manual, and so Multi-File Compare was created from this need.

The number of comparisons automatically generated by the program for n files is n (n-1) / 2. So you can imagine that the number of comparisons can grow pretty rapidly, since it's on the order of O(n²)

Features

Multi-File Compare does some very simple things. It's not the best at doing these things, and I have a fairly good idea of some of the things I want to accomplish with it, but these are currently the key features of the program.

• Drag-and-drop file selection (in fact, it is the only way to specify files)
• Automatic complete graph set file comparison pairing (basically, what it means is that all of the files will be compared with each other)
• Fast comparisons (it's not doing a diff - as soon as it finds something that is different between two files, it stops the comparison and flags the two files as being different).
• Can skip or cancel file comparisons.
• Can remove file comparison pairs.
• Will let you know if the files are the same, different in file size, or different in content.

Development

Multi-File Compare is being developed in Microsoft Visual Basic 6. Why? Because it's easy for me. I am more productive in this environment and because it is also what I use at work.

I don't have CVS setup because it's just too complicated to do right now. Maybe in the future.

Future Stuff

These are some of the things I have in mind for the future direction of the program. Of course these are not set in stone, and they may change at any time.

Features

• Two-pass comparisons - do all the file size comparisons first (look for immediate, quick file differences first, and leave actual file comparisons for later.
• File list and comparison list column sorting.

Versions

It may be a little premature to think about future versions, but I already have something ideas in mind, so I might as well share the information.

• ActiveX component file comparison engine - detached from GUI, to be usable by other programs.
• Graphical GUI display of file comparisons - a graph with lines drawn between them, etc.
• Support scripts to allow the user to customize program behavior.
• Accept a text file of file lists.
• A command-line version.