Beyond Compare is beyond comparison

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SOFTWARE By Will Fastie A good utility program can greatly improve productivity. A great utility program is often indispensable. One capability that h
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webweweave, ibe98765, Norio, Captain Al, geekdom, WSAnklebuster

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This is a great review! I have a similar history with computers (saving programs on Paper tape from the time-sharing terminal in middle school; hand-coding ML on the Commodore 64; carrying around COBOL programs on punch cards in college.)

I bought Beyond Compare In the early 2000’s to manage all the duplicate backups I had accumulated. My favorite feature was the ability to write scripts to automate tasks. This was vital for the implementation of a Tower of Hanoi backup scheme. LOL (I love backups!)

I never saw the need to get Beyond Compare 3. I see your screen shots show BC2, but you mentioned upgrading?

 

Cheers,

 

Mitch

 

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Will Fastie

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Binary file comparison looks so very nice.

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Hi Will:

Scooter Software is my all-time greatest software company. Like you – I came up through punch cards, mini-computers and the rest. I use BC4 every week at a minimum to back up my “work” to my Windows server. It’s a poor man’s version control but the methodology has saved me years of heartache backing up over a prior file versions that I “meant to keep”. Files, music, photos – everything is vetted before backing up with 1 command covering a 1.3TB laptop drive to the server. Unbelievably fast!

And – customer service is still there – still helpful – still fully engaged when needed.

Gary

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Will Fastie

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I am so glad Will Fastie has reviewed Beyond Compare! This is by far the most valuable utility I have ever used in my 45 years of PC history. I have purchased several licenses over the years, just to support the developers and thank them for maintaining it.

Remember, it makes a fantastic backup program! Easy to review what has changed and what needs copying. I maintain 4 copies of my backups and it is always easy to see how up to date each is.

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Will Fastie

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WSAnklebuster wrote:

I see your screen shots show BC2, but you mentioned upgrading?

Some of the screen shots were from the Scooter website and I wasn’t paying attention to the version. The two shots of the poor man’s source control were mine, from BC4 Pro.

WSAnklebuster wrote:

I never saw the need to get Beyond Compare 3.

It’s easy to feel that way because the program is so complete. I just think it’s worth paying a little bit for upkeep, even if the newest features aren’t relevant to what I’m currently doing.

WSAnklebuster wrote:

saving programs on Paper tape from the time-sharing terminal in middle school

Middle school?!? I was using paper tape in my first job!

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WSAnklebuster

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Thanks for your clarification and for your reasoning for buying BC4.

I can’t imagine businesses used paper tape! LOL

Cheers,

 

Mitch

 

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donethat7 wrote:

And – customer service is still there – still helpful – still fully engaged when needed.

Absolutely true.

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I agree that this is the best value I have ever received from a utility purchase. I have lots of programs that have to be checked on Mac, Windows and Linux, so I have three laptops that must be kept in sync.

Plus a website that has text, images, PDFs.

I think Beyond Compare itself is written in Delphi. Does anyone know.

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Yes, Beyond Compare was originally written in Delphi. I would not be surprised if over time it has been also implemented in Free Pascal/Lazarus, especially the Linux version, since Kylix was discontinued. Zoë Peterson, Scooter Software lead developer, sometimes asks questions on Free Pascal forums as well as Delphi forums.

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Will Fastie

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I use Beyond Compare at work on Windows servers for some huge search / replace tasks.   Beyond Compare really is a slick editor.

Depending on the use case and if I need it automated  I will switch to the complexity of bash/grep/sed/awk on Linux.

Some very old complex cruft still uses perl which I rarely have to change but am horrified to even look at it , but I’m too lazy to rewrite in something sensible like python.

I use the easiest tool for job based on my existing tools.  I have dabbled/stumbled in about two dozen languages over the decades never becoming very good with any of them.  I like to think I’m better at knowing which to use.   I am the lazy scripter/programmer.

Bill Gates — ‘I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.’

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I’ve found Beyond Compare invaluable — and a great value — for years, and I only use a fraction of its capabilities.

While this probably isn’t a big draw for most people, one enhancement I like most about v4 is the option to preserve creation dates when copying.

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Will Fastie

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I’ve been using Beyond Compare practically everyday since 2005.

And yeah, I have a C:\Utils folder too.

Old school is cool.    LOL

 

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Will Fastie

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JohnReam wrote:

Old school is cool.    LOL

Hmph. Depends on the age of the person you’re talking to.

JohnReam wrote:

And yeah, I have a C:\Utils folder too.

Now this is old school: I have a folder called “Download.” Not plural. Way back then, I was stuck with eight-character filenames. (That’s right kids, only eight characters in a filename!)

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Will – an IT consultant friend of mine turned me onto BC before he passed a decade ago.  I think of him whenever I use BC, which is sooo often

Scooter is sooo active on their forums for support.  I feel bad with loads of companies moving to subscriptions / frequent paid upgrades, squeezing $$ out of users for not much support or changes.  And Scooter is at v4 and great support at a low price point.

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