Setting the Compare Options
The Compare Options panel allows you to specify a comparison configuration. To display the Compare Options panel, from the Profile panel, select option 1 (COMPARE). The Compare Options panel, shown below, appears.
SERCPXOP Compare Options
Command ===> _________________________________________________________________
Text type . . . . . . . _______ (Language name or dot for M+R to determine)
Column range from . . . _______ (Compare from this column
Column range to . . . . _______ to that column instead of language defaults)
Ignore records
with characters . . . . _______ (Up to 8 characters that mark a comment line)
at position . . . . . . _______ (Starting column position of above)
Comparison res . . . . DEFAULT (Low or default or high or super resolution)
Enter "/" to select option
_ Ignore differences in text case
_ Block differences between versions
_ Determine and display moved records
The following table describes the information that you can type in the fields of the Compare Options panel.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Text type | The language of the code that you plan to consolidate. To enable a comparison algorithm that dynamically determines the code type it compares, you can use a period (.) as the wildcard character. You can override this field with a specific language from a list. (See definitions of valid TEXT Types in the next table.) To suppress the default of ignoring columnar indentation, you can prefix the chosen language with a dollar ($) sign (outside U.S.A and Canada it is the national currency symbol). For example, enter "COBOL" (to ignore blanks) or "$COBOL" (to compare all characters). |
| Column range from | The first column from which you wish to begin the comparison of a record. |
| Column range to | The last column to which you wish to end the comparison. |
| Ignore records with characters | Allows you to exclude certain records from the comparison between the versions; for example, comment records. |
| at position | The column where the string, that you specified in the Ignore Records with Characters field, begins. |
| Comparison res | The Comparison res setting gives you a choice to "prime" the comparison engine. Occasionally, the language default resolution fails to produce a concise picture of what has been changed in the versions. This may be caused by adding a block of code that is similar to the preceding or following block of code; the default resolution in this case prevents the comparison engine from looking ahead far enough. In other cases, a lower-than-the-default resolution produces better results. You can improve the comprehension of the version differences by selecting an appropriate resolution: L (low), D (default), H (high), or S (super high). Note: When comparing ISPF skeleton and panel components, a Comparison Resolution of Low is forced to obtain best results, regardless of the setting in this field. |
| Ignore differences in text case | Yes or No to ignore the difference in the text case, that is, the case sensitivity of the comparison. |
| Block differences between versions | Select to display the differences between versions, in blocks vs. overlaid. |
| Determine and display moved records | Select to determine and display records moved to different places in the versions. |
The following table defines the TEXT Types. Use this table to enter the TEXT Type field as illustrated in the Compare Options panel. For each TEXT Type, the comparison range and ignored characters are specified. "EOR" means end-of-record.
| TEXT Type | Meaning | Comparison Range (position) | Ignore (unless type prefixed with $) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ALC | Assembler Language Coding | 1 through 72 | Blanks |
| BAL | Basic Assembler Language | 1 through 72 | Blanks |
| C | C | 1 through 72 | Blanks |
| CLIST | CLIST (variable length records) | 9 through EOR | Blanks |
| COBOL | COBOL | 7 through 72 | Blanks, Commas |
| FORTRAN | FORTRAN | 2 through 72 | Blanks |
| JCL | Job Control Language | 1 through 72 | Blanks |
| NATURAL | ADABAS Natural | Entire record | Blanks |
| PANEL | ISPF Panel | Entire record | |
| PASCAL | Pascal | 1 through 72 | Blanks |
| PL/I, PLI | PLI forms | 2 through 72 | Blanks |
| PL/1, PL1 | PLI forms | 2 through 72 | Blanks |
| REPORT | Report | Entire record | |
| REXX | REXX | Entire record | Blanks |
| RPG | RPG | 2 through 66 | Blanks |
| SCRIPT | SCRIPT/VS GML | Entire record |