David Goodger <dgoodger@atsautomation.com>:

Documentation for difflib/ndiff refactoring: more of the ndiff functionality
has been moved to the underlying library (difflib).

This closes SF patch #445413.

Doc/lib/libdifflib.tex

@@ -10,6 +10,48 @@
 \versionadded{2.1}
 
 
+\begin{classdesc*}{SequenceMatcher}
+  This is a flexible class for comparing pairs of sequences of any
+  type, so long as the sequence elements are hashable.  The basic
+  algorithm predates, and is a little fancier than, an algorithm
+  published in the late 1980's by Ratcliff and Obershelp under the
+  hyperbolic name ``gestalt pattern matching.''  The idea is to find
+  the longest contiguous matching subsequence that contains no
+  ``junk'' elements (the Ratcliff and Obershelp algorithm doesn't
+  address junk).  The same idea is then applied recursively to the
+  pieces of the sequences to the left and to the right of the matching
+  subsequence.  This does not yield minimal edit sequences, but does
+  tend to yield matches that ``look right'' to people.
+
+  \strong{Timing:} The basic Ratcliff-Obershelp algorithm is cubic
+  time in the worst case and quadratic time in the expected case.
+  \class{SequenceMatcher} is quadratic time for the worst case and has
+  expected-case behavior dependent in a complicated way on how many
+  elements the sequences have in common; best case time is linear.
+\end{classdesc*}
+
+\begin{classdesc*}{Differ}
+  This is a class for comparing sequences of lines of text, and
+  producing human-readable differences or deltas. Differ uses
+  \class{SequenceMatcher} both to compare sequences of lines, and to
+  compare sequences of characters within similar (near-matching)
+  lines.
+
+  Each line of a \class{Differ} delta begins with a two-letter code:
+
+\begin{tableii}{l|l}{code}{Code}{Meaning}
+  \lineii{'- '}{line unique to sequence 1}
+  \lineii{'+ '}{line unique to sequence 2}
+  \lineii{'  '}{line common to both sequences}
+  \lineii{'? '}{line not present in either input sequence}
+\end{tableii}
+
+  Lines beginning with `\code{?~}' attempt to guide the eye to
+  intraline differences, and were not present in either input
+  sequence. These lines can be confusing if the sequences contain tab
+  characters.
+\end{classdesc*}
+
 \begin{funcdesc}{get_close_matches}{word, possibilities\optional{,
                  n\optional{, cutoff}}}
   Return a list of the best ``good enough'' matches.  \var{word} is a
@@ -40,25 +82,85 @@
 \end{verbatim}
 \end{funcdesc}
 
-\begin{classdesc*}{SequenceMatcher}
+\begin{funcdesc}{ndiff}{a, b\optional{, linejunk\optional{,
-  This is a flexible class for comparing pairs of sequences of any
+                 charjunk}}}
-  type, so long as the sequence elements are hashable.  The basic
+  Compare \var{a} and \var{b} (lists of strings); return a
-  algorithm predates, and is a little fancier than, an algorithm
+  \class{Differ}-style delta.
-  published in the late 1980's by Ratcliff and Obershelp under the
-  hyperbolic name ``gestalt pattern matching.''  The idea is to find
-  the longest contiguous matching subsequence that contains no
-  ``junk'' elements (the Ratcliff and Obershelp algorithm doesn't
-  address junk).  The same idea is then applied recursively to the
-  pieces of the sequences to the left and to the right of the matching
-  subsequence.  This does not yield minimal edit sequences, but does
-  tend to yield matches that ``look right'' to people.
 
-  \strong{Timing:} The basic Ratcliff-Obershelp algorithm is cubic
+  Optional keyword parameters \var{linejunk} and \var{charjunk} are
-  time in the worst case and quadratic time in the expected case.
+  for filter functions (or \code{None}):
-  \class{SequenceMatcher} is quadratic time for the worst case and has
+
-  expected-case behavior dependent in a complicated way on how many
+  \var{linejunk}: A function that should accept a single string
-  elements the sequences have in common; best case time is linear.
+  argument, and return true if the string is junk (or false if it is
-\end{classdesc*}
+  not). The default is module-level function
+  \function{IS_LINE_JUNK()}, which filters out lines without visible
+  characters, except for at most one pound character (\character{\#}).
+
+  \var{charjunk}: A function that should accept a string of length 1.
+  The default is module-level function \function{IS_CHARACTER_JUNK()},
+  which filters out whitespace characters (a blank or tab; note: bad
+  idea to include newline in this!).
+
+  \file{Tools/scripts/ndiff.py} is a command-line front-end to this
+  function.
+
+\begin{verbatim}
+>>> diff = ndiff('one\ntwo\nthree\n'.splitlines(1),
+...              'ore\ntree\nemu\n'.splitlines(1)))
+>>> print ''.join(diff),
+- one
+?  ^  
++ ore
+?  ^  
+- two
+- three
+?  -    
++ tree
++ emu
+\end{verbatim}
+\end{funcdesc}
+
+\begin{funcdesc}{restore}{sequence, which}
+  Return one of the two sequences that generated a delta.
+
+  Given a \var{sequence} produced by \method{Differ.compare()} or
+  \function{ndiff()}, extract lines originating from file 1 or 2
+  (parameter \var{which}), stripping off line prefixes.
+
+  Example:
+
+\begin{verbatim}
+>>> diff = ndiff('one\ntwo\nthree\n'.splitlines(1),
+...              'ore\ntree\nemu\n'.splitlines(1))
+>>> print ''.join(restore(diff, 1)),
+one
+two
+three
+>>> print ''.join(restore(diff, 2)),
+ore
+tree
+emu
+\end{verbatim}
+
+\end{funcdesc}
+
+
+\begin{funcdesc}{IS_LINE_JUNK}{line}:
+
+  Return 1 for ignorable line: iff \var{line} is blank or contains a
+  single \character{\#}.  Used as a default for parameter
+  \var{linejunk} in \function{ndiff()}.
+
+\end{funcdesc}
+
+
+\begin{funcdesc}{IS_CHARACTER_JUNK}{ch}:
+
+  Return 1 for ignorable character: iff \var{ch} is a space or tab.
+  Used as a default for parameter \var{charjunk} in
+  \function{ndiff()}.
+
+\end{funcdesc}
 
 
 \begin{seealso}
@@ -231,9 +333,9 @@ replace a[3:4] (x) b[2:3] (y)
   range [0, 1].
 
   Where T is the total number of elements in both sequences, and M is
-  the number of matches, this is 2.0*M / T. Note that this is \code{1.}
+  the number of matches, this is 2.0*M / T. Note that this is
-  if the sequences are identical, and \code{0.} if they have nothing in
+  \code{1.0} if the sequences are identical, and \code{0.0} if they
-  common.
+  have nothing in common.
 
   This is expensive to compute if \method{get_matching_blocks()} or
   \method{get_opcodes()} hasn't already been called, in which case you
@@ -272,7 +374,7 @@ at least as large as \method{ratio()}:
 \end{verbatim}
 
 
-\subsection{Examples \label{difflib-examples}}
+\subsection{SequenceMatcher Examples \label{sequencematcher-examples}}
 
 
 This example compares two strings, considering blanks to be ``junk:''
@@ -321,11 +423,122 @@ insert a[8:8] b[8:17]
  equal a[14:29] b[23:38]
 \end{verbatim}
 
-See \file{Tools/scripts/ndiff.py} from the Python source distribution
-for a fancy human-friendly file differencer, which uses
-\class{SequenceMatcher} both to view files as sequences of lines, and
-lines as sequences of characters.
-
 See also the function \function{get_close_matches()} in this module,
 which shows how simple code building on \class{SequenceMatcher} can be
 used to do useful work.
+
+
+\subsection{Differ Objects \label{differ-objects}}
+
+Note that \class{Differ}-generated deltas make no claim to be
+\strong{minimal} diffs. To the contrary, minimal diffs are often
+counter-intuitive, because they synch up anywhere possible, sometimes
+accidental matches 100 pages apart. Restricting synch points to
+contiguous matches preserves some notion of locality, at the
+occasional cost of producing a longer diff.
+
+The \class{Differ} class has this constructor:
+
+\begin{classdesc}{Differ}{\optional{linejunk\optional{, charjunk}}}
+  Optional keyword parameters \var{linejunk} and \var{charjunk} are
+  for filter functions (or \code{None}):
+
+  \var{linejunk}: A function that should accept a single string
+  argument, and return true iff the string is junk. The default is
+  module-level function \function{IS_LINE_JUNK()}, which filters out
+  lines without visible characters, except for at most one pound
+  character (\character{\#}).
+
+  \var{charjunk}: A function that should accept a string of length 1.
+  The default is module-level function \function{IS_CHARACTER_JUNK()},
+  which filters out whitespace characters (a blank or tab; note: bad
+  idea to include newline in this!).
+\end{classdesc}
+
+\class{Differ} objects are used (deltas generated) via a single
+method:
+
+\begin{methoddesc}{compare}{a, b}
+  Compare two sequences of lines; return the resulting delta (list).
+
+  Each sequence must contain individual single-line strings ending
+  with newlines. Such sequences can be obtained from the
+  \method{readlines()} method of file-like objects. The list returned
+  is also made up of newline-terminated strings, and ready to be used
+  with the \method{writelines()} method of a file-like object.
+\end{methoddesc}
+
+
+\subsection{Differ Example \label{differ-examples}}
+
+This example compares two texts. First we set up the texts, sequences
+of individual single-line strings ending with newlines (such sequences
+can also be obtained from the \method{readlines()} method of file-like
+objects):
+
+\begin{verbatim}
+>>> text1 = '''  1. Beautiful is better than ugly.
+...   2. Explicit is better than implicit.
+...   3. Simple is better than complex.
+...   4. Complex is better than complicated.
+... '''.splitlines(1)
+>>> len(text1)
+4
+>>> text1[0][-1]
+'\n'
+>>> text2 = '''  1. Beautiful is better than ugly.
+...   3.   Simple is better than complex.
+...   4. Complicated is better than complex.
+...   5. Flat is better than nested.
+... '''.splitlines(1)
+\end{verbatim}
+
+Next we instantiate a Differ object:
+
+\begin{verbatim}
+>>> d = Differ()
+\end{verbatim}
+
+Note that when instantiating a \class{Differ} object we may pass
+functions to filter out line and character ``junk.''  See the
+\method{Differ()} constructor for details.
+
+Finally, we compare the two:
+
+\begin{verbatim}
+>>> result = d.compare(text1, text2)
+\end{verbatim}
+
+\code{result} is a list of strings, so let's pretty-print it:
+
+\begin{verbatim}
+>>> from pprint import pprint
+>>> pprint(result)
+['    1. Beautiful is better than ugly.\n',
+ '-   2. Explicit is better than implicit.\n',
+ '-   3. Simple is better than complex.\n',
+ '+   3.   Simple is better than complex.\n',
+ '?     ++                                \n',
+ '-   4. Complex is better than complicated.\n',
+ '?            ^                     ---- ^  \n',
+ '+   4. Complicated is better than complex.\n',
+ '?           ++++ ^                      ^  \n',
+ '+   5. Flat is better than nested.\n']
+\end{verbatim}
+
+As a single multi-line string it looks like this:
+
+\begin{verbatim}
+>>> import sys
+>>> sys.stdout.writelines(result)
+    1. Beautiful is better than ugly.
+-   2. Explicit is better than implicit.
+-   3. Simple is better than complex.
++   3.   Simple is better than complex.
+?     ++
+-   4. Complex is better than complicated.
+?            ^                     ---- ^
++   4. Complicated is better than complex.
+?           ++++ ^                      ^
++   5. Flat is better than nested.
+\end{verbatim}