Variations
Changes since 1975 include improvements to the core algorithm, the addition of useful features to the command, and the design of new output formats. The basic algorithm is described in the papers An O(ND) Difference Algorithm and its Variations by Eugene W. Myers and in A File Comparison Program by Webb Miller and Myers. The algorithm was independently discovered and described in Algorithms for Approximate String Matching, by Esko Ukkonen. The first editions of the diff program were designed for line comparisons of text files expecting the newline character to delimit lines. By the 1980s, support for binary files resulted in a shift in the application's design and implementation.
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Famous quotes containing the word variations:
“I may be able to spot arrowheads on the desert but a refrigerator is a jungle in which I am easily lost. My wife, however, will unerringly point out that the cheese or the leftover roast is hiding right in front of my eyes. Hundreds of such experiences convince me that men and women often inhabit quite different visual worlds. These are differences which cannot be attributed to variations in visual acuity. Man and women simply have learned to use their eyes in very different ways.”
—Edward T. Hall (b. 1914)