What should semantic diffs highlight: The change or its effect?

[darkplayer@lemmy.world]

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[breadsmasher@lemmy.world]

This is an interesting problem to mull over; thanks for posting it!

[kissaki@programming.dev]

"" to '' … There is nothing to highlight for SemanticDiff.

Really? I definitely want to see that. I want to be deliberate about my code.

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I'm surprised they did not list an alternative that would be my preference: Highlight the entire string. The f prefix changes the entire text value type. I would like the `f´ to be highlighted strongly, and string it changes the interpretation of weakly, and the placeholder variable more strongly again.

[drathvedro@lemm.ee]

I don't see what's the point of the second one if the syntax highlight, even in the first example, already shows a changed role.

A more realistic solution for the example code would be to setup a linter in the pipeline, and if one letter variables and/or template literals detected, depending on how nice you are, reject the commit, or send an email requesting the author to be beaten up with a crowbar to the techlead, and a copy, parsed by chatgpt for formality and politeness, to the HR.

[darkplayer@lemmy.world]

Many code formatters decide whether to use " or ' based on some configuration and whether the default one would require escaping. So if you are using such a code formatter, this is no longer a deliberate choice unless you explicitly override the behavior with annotations.

I am not sure whether your solution of using a less intense color for the unchanged part of the string would make it clearer. It is just more similar to other diff tools that highlight the whole line with a less intense color if it contains changes.

[bogasse@lemmy.ml]

Then with a code formatter you definitely want to show this change. In a normal usage the code formatter should ensure that this kind of diff can't happen, then it's useful to see if it was not used during a code review.

[kissaki@programming.dev]

If the formatting configuration forces one specific style then that is the deliberate choice; to have that one.

If there is no uniform single string quoting it is useful to differentiate between them; for example if for normal strings ' is preferred while for specific cases where escaping characters like \n is required, " must be used.

[kissaki@programming.dev]

would make it clearer

Would make what clearer?

If I change a string to a raw string or an interpolated string, it is a semantic change on the entire string, even if it leads to consequential changes only on subsections of it.

[tiredofsametab@fedia.io]

I don't speak python. Does the f in the top example affect string interpolation or something? If the above replaces {bar} and the below does not, highlight all after the equals sign would be my preference.

[swordinstone@lemmy.world]

it allows string interpolation with the syntax in the photo

[tocano@lemmy.today]

The most obvious option: highlight what changed, the whole string. If you changed the string from interpolated to non-interpolated, the meaning of the whole sring changed; it is no longer a method to concatenate variables, it has become a literal string.

Same for the example of single to double quotes. In some languages, double quotes are only used in specific contexts, so its use changes the meaning of the code.

[ulterno@programming.dev]

Options 1 and 3 make sense to me.
Option 2 feels like something specific:
Similar to cases like 100 vs 100U with the second one denoting "unsigned".

[driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br]

I like the way azure dev-ops do it, they highlight the entire line with a soft color and the changes with a harder one. Isn't not semantic afaik.

[eager_eagle@lemmy.world]

The post chooses to use Python, where single and double quotes are equivalent and are not a semantic change. In other languages that might be, but that's not the point of the article. A semantic diff is language dependent.