GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 379160
Need option to swap left and right diff panes
Last modified: 2013-07-20 21:12:00 UTC
Many of us subscribe to the widely-used Left=L=Local/Right=R=Remote pattern, so the fact that meld is reversed is confusing, and could easily lead to moving code in the wrong direction. Please support a Preferences option that would allow global swapping of Left/Right so meld can match the other tools we use on a daily basis. Other information:
Created attachment 118955 [details] [review] Patch to add option to swap panes in VC view
I assume from the context that this request is for the version control view, and that the swapping would only be for files comparisons launched from this view? If so, then the above patch add the requested option. There's no UI for this, so you need to manually set the /apps/meld/left_is_local gconf key to true. I don't use the version control functionality a lot, so I don't have an opinion as to whether this is a legitimate preference, or whether the default should just be swapped, etc.
(In reply to comment #2) > I assume from the context that this request is for the version control view, > and that the swapping would only be for files comparisons launched from this > view? Sorry for not being more clear in the original report. Yes, this is what I meant. > I don't use the version control functionality a lot, so I don't have an opinion > as to whether this is a legitimate preference, or whether the default should > just be swapped, etc. I would prefer the default to be swapped, if nobody objects. In eclipse, Left is always Local. In gFTP (GnomeFTP), Left defaults to local. Just a couple examples.
I don't have a very strong opinion, but to play devil's advocate: this isn't obvious to me, particularly for distributed VC, when there is not necessarily any 'remote'. In this case (and in some others, like conflict resolution) there is 'old' and 'new', and a general LTR tendency would be to want old (i.e., the repo) on the left and new (i.e., my stuff) on the right.
This problem has been fixed in the development version. The fix will be available in the next major software release. Thank you for your bug report.