Community Wishlist Survey 2017/Reading/Simple diff

Random proposal ►◄ Reading

Simple diff

Problem: The normal diff displays article text and wiki markup. For readers only interested in changes to the article text, it's overly complicated and it's sometimes difficult to even find the article text changes among all the templates and other markup.

Who would benefit: I have a use in mind for this that is aimed at academic reviewers and the general reader but patrollers, editors and authors will benefit from this feature too.

Proposed solution: Offer both options: the normal diff containing article text and wiki markup, and a simple diff showing just the changes to article text.

More comments:

Phabricator tickets:

Proposer: Anthonyhcole (talk) 23:16, 11 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Translations: none yet

Discussion

I recommend flipping a few times between these two images in a media viewer. Compare the experiences. Anthonyhcole (talk) 14:37, 12 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

What about changes in files, references, tables and templates? --Vachovec1 (talk) 19:13, 12 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
- Vachovec1: Sure. If it’s technically possible to display the original and replacement citation, image, category, table, etc., I’m all for it. (To be clear, I’m talking about a diff where the original image, citation, etc. itself, not its code, appears in the left column and the replacement image, citation, etc., not its code, appears in the right column.) The more that can be included in the simple diff, the better, provided it”s all simple and not code, but if the best that can be achieved initially is just a diff showing how the text of the article has changed, that’s OK, too. This isn’t going to replace the standard diff, and a diff showing just article word changes would be of benefit to editors. That said, maybe there should be a warning at the top pointing out the kinds of changes that the diff doesn’t highlight. —Anthonyhcole (talk) 06:47, 13 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I really would like to see an API for this, but it might not for performance reasons. MER-C (talk) 04:16, 13 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
- MER-C, I’m not technically literate but this conversation with James Forrester leaves me thinking a simple diff might be doable once the visual editor diff is a bit more mature. —Anthonyhcole (talk) 06:47, 13 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Is this basically mw:VisualEditor/Diffs? Anomie (talk) 17:42, 13 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Anomie, can I link to a visual diff comparing versions in a page’s history? Do I need to do something in my preferences? —Anthonyhcole (talk) 03:11, 14 November 2017 (UTC) I’ve just been told to add &visualdiff to a standard diff url and select “visual (beta)”, like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?diff=749832945&oldid=749832814&title=User:Anthonyhcole/Sandbox&visualdiff which achieves nothing like what I’m looking for, unfortunately. Compare that diff (after selecting “Visual (beta)”) with this. The latter is the same two pages in the standard diff with all the code and markup removed - just article text. Anthonyhcole (talk) 10:29, 14 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
It looks like the current beta isn't very good with a complex edit like that. Anomie (talk) 14:39, 14 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
- I would say so. Then this task would be about to make it available for "normal" diff screen, not for VE only (e.g. like Two Column Conflict). --Vachovec1 (talk) 18:52, 13 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Could be added as a button to the dif view. When clicked on it switches between one view and the other. I would definitely use it. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 22:14, 13 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
- Yes, that's exactly what I thought. --Vachovec1 (talk) 11:23, 14 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

A notice: there is a very similar proposal in the section Editing, namely Community Wishlist Survey 2017/Editing#Support_multiple_diff_variants Support multiple diff variants. --Vachovec1 (talk) 14:45, 15 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Voting

Support —viciarg⁴¹⁴ 08:38, 28 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Jcornelius (talk) 10:01, 28 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support --Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 13:23, 28 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support YFdyh000 (talk) 16:16, 28 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Dexxor (talk) 18:23, 28 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Gripweed (talk) 21:32, 28 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Thomas Obermair 4 (talk) 23:06, 28 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Libcub (talk) 05:18, 29 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Donald Trung (Talk 🤳🏻) (My global lock 🔒) (My global unlock 🔓) 11:19, 29 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Ermahgerd9 (talk) 20:46, 29 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support CogitoErgoSum14 (talk) 01:12, 30 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Long wanted such a thing Force Radical (talk) 06:50, 30 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support --Dalka (talk) 07:44, 30 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support - yona B. (D) 08:33, 30 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support -donald- (talk) 11:12, 30 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support אשר1234567890 (talk) 12:29, 30 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Exilexi (talk) 14:38, 30 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Dromedar61 (talk) 21:36, 30 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Jith12 (talk) 22:47, 30 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support But as an added "option" as Doc James said above. –Ammarpad (talk) 23:40, 30 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Braveheidi (talk) 07:19, 1 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Hogne (talk) 09:51, 1 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Eug (talk) 11:52, 1 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Tigerzeng (talk) 16:07, 1 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support CosmosAway (talk) 17:24, 1 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support --Superchilum^{(talk to me!)} 20:25, 1 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support as an option to check when you are on a diff, yes. GrandCelinien (talk) 23:33, 1 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support SEMMENDINGER (talk) 23:53, 1 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Whats new? (talk) 00:20, 2 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Szoltys (talk) 12:13, 2 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support ديفيد عادل وهبة خليل 2 (talk) 12:30, 2 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support ~Cybularny ^Speak? 12:54, 2 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Wolbo (talk) 13:07, 2 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Tom Ja (talk) 14:22, 2 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Ented (talk) 15:05, 2 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Nabla (talk) 22:19, 2 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Ooh, I really like this idea. Boing! said Zebedee (talk) 22:37, 2 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Waldir (talk) 11:03, 3 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support FULBERT (talk) 19:07, 3 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Paucabot (talk) 19:09, 3 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support TheNavigatrr (talk) 01:14, 4 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support --Jarekt (talk) 13:28, 4 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Pau Colominas (talk) 16:28, 4 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Medol (talk) 17:11, 4 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Tiputini (talk) 17:13, 4 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Unapersona (talk) 17:28, 4 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support JAn Dudík (talk) 21:57, 4 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 03:18, 5 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Vincent Simar (talk) 11:57, 5 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Kudpung (talk) 21:10, 6 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Klaas `Z4␟` V: 22:27, 6 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Richard Nevell (WMUK) (talk) 13:45, 8 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support It would be helpful many times for me, especially if tables have been edited. Dolotta (talk) 21:41, 8 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Fano (talk) 11:54, 9 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support RolandUnger (talk) 18:22, 9 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support This can be a part of another proposal: Support multiple diff variants. Ruslik (talk) 17:05, 10 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Tokenzero (talk) 18:56, 10 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Jack who built the house (talk) 22:38, 10 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Darylgolden (talk) 03:54, 11 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Support Yohannvt (talk) 12:10, 11 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]