Kaleidoscope 4
- Syntax coloring, with multiple built-in themes.
- Transform any comparison into a merge document that can be edited inline.
- Text filters to clean up diffs by removing irrelevant data, such as time stamps, object addresses and unique identifiers.
- Kaleidoscope Prism, a new helper app in the menu bar to quickly launch comparisons even if Kaleidoscope is not running.
- Debugger integration for Python developers.
- File properties show metadata, including size, file type, dates, and encoding.
- A welcome window that speeds up the processes of creating new comparisons or finding recent ones.
The syntax coloring is nice. The most interesting feature for me is the text filters, which have a nifty interface that reminds me of BBEdit pattern playgrounds. I expect that they will prove useful when comparing Xcode debug or test output.
It’s not available from the Mac App Store.
Previously:
Update (2023-05-30): Florian Albrecht:
While the new version is very much a continuation of what we started 2.5 years ago with Kaleidoscope 3, we modernized many aspects of the app. This screenshot of a simple text comparison shows off some of the changes[…]
Update (2023-06-01): Florian Albrecht:
Kaleidoscope 4.0 comes with 7 predefined [text] filters. Most of them are designed for immediate real-world use. To illustrate how to use them, I am just going to run a simple and unfinished SwiftUI app to create license files from Xcode, twice, and copy the log output into Kaleidoscope.
[…]
While this result is not hard to understand, it contains a lot of “noise”, i.e. data that is not relevant to finding important differences. Let’s go ahead and clean this up a little.
Update (2023-07-25): Florian Albrecht:
The small square window in Kaleidoscope Prism is a great new target for dropping files and content. In addition to being a convenient visible drop area, the window has a button in the top right that provides another way to access the Kaleidoscope Prism menu. This has the benefit of making the menu available even when the menubar item is set to toggle the window (more about that below).
[…]
In order to be useful as a drop target, the window needs to be visible at the right moment. So let’s talk about how to configure this to fit your needs.
[…]
While it’s a rather tiny drop target, you can also drop content onto the Kaleidoscope Prism menu bar icon itself. Initially, it may feel a little odd to drop stuff onto the menu bar, but it is extremely convenient and space-saving.
