Read the text files to be compared in universal-newline mode.

Misc/NEWS

@@ -157,7 +157,11 @@ New platforms
 Tools/Demos
 -----------
 
-...
+- The text file comparison scripts ``ndiff.py`` and ``diff.py`` now
+  read the input files in universal-newline mode.  This spares them
+  from consuming a great deal of time to deduce the useless result that,
+  e.g., a file with Windows line ends and a file with Linux line ends
+  have no lines in common.
 
 
 What's New in Python 2.4 alpha 3?

Tools/scripts/diff.py

@@ -31,8 +31,8 @@ def main():
 
     fromdate = time.ctime(os.stat(fromfile).st_mtime)
     todate = time.ctime(os.stat(tofile).st_mtime)
-    fromlines = open(fromfile).readlines()
-    tolines = open(tofile).readlines()
+    fromlines = open(fromfile, 'U').readlines()
+    tolines = open(tofile, 'U').readlines()
 
     if options.u:
         diff = difflib.unified_diff(fromlines, tolines, fromfile, tofile, fromdate, todate, n=n)

Tools/scripts/ndiff.py

@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ def fail(msg):
 # couldn't be opened
 def fopen(fname):
     try:
-        return open(fname, 'r')
+        return open(fname, 'U')
     except IOError, detail:
         return fail("couldn't open " + fname + ": " + str(detail))