Improvements to the Script Editor’s Diff Tool

Updates Announcements
#1

Hey Creators!

We are excited to announce the new version of Studio Script Editor’s Diff Tool which will be rolling out to 100% of users in the coming days!

We rebuilt the Diff Tool based on the Script Editor so it offers a much better user experience that is consistent with the rest of Studio’s Script Editor. The new Diff Tool now supports text selection, copying and pasting code, and more!

The Diff Tool can be invoked from the Compare Package Versions dialog, View Script History, and Drafts Widget.

Features

Text Selection

Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Copy: Ctrl + C (Windows/Linux) / Cmd + C (macOS)

  • Select all: Ctrl + A / Cmd + A

  • Zoom in: Ctrl + + / Cmd + +

  • Zoom out: Ctrl + - / Cmd + -

  • Reset zoom: Ctrl + 0 / Cmd +0

Code Expansion

Users can click on the arrow icon to expand folded sections, revealing the code 10 lines at a time.

Note: Once expanded, sections cannot be recollapsed.

Batched Diffing

In Drafts Mode, compare changes across multiple documents, with each diff opening in a new tab.

Prev/Next Hunk

Users should be able to navigate between the hunks using the prev/next hunk actions from the ribbon bar

Visual Line Indicators

Visual indicators such as +/-, line numbers, up/down arrows (for expandable code), and … (for non-expandable code) show where lines have been added, modified, or removed.

When code is collapsed, the new diff tool displays modified lines with three lines of context on each side and a hunk header formatted as @@ -a,b +c,d @@. Here, a and c are the start lines in the original and new file, respectively, while b and d indicate the number of lines changed.

1324×882 142 KB

Please let us know if you have any questions! The team will be closely monitoring for any potential issues throughout the release process and beyond.

We are extremely excited to see how this will improve the scripting experience for you!

Many thanks to @BobaTops, @notchickennnnn, @montximontxi, and @idevride for making this possible.

Happy scripting!

129 Likes
What's changed in the past 6 months?
#2

This topic was automatically opened after 11 minutes.

#3

Why? It may be useful when wanting to read a specific part of the code and collapsing it again to continue checking the diff. I can’t see a reason for it to not be collapsible again

41 Likes
#4

I love that they are adding new features to the roblox code editor, it’s really boring, I hope they add more features like this, thank you very much for this!

10 Likes
#5

Does anyone actually use this feature? :P
Still cool tho! Good job guys

12 Likes
#6

roblox git moment

too be fair we already have a version control in roblox, so this is a nice addition, tho it would be cool if we could directly use github with roblox

5 Likes
#7

this is not an addition, the difference feature has always existed, they just redid it

8 Likes
#8

Oh my bad then, i have never noticed this before though

2 Likes
#9

Git operates at the file level, in which the upcoming feature “export to files” announced at rdc could allow for. But this diff tool is realistically the only thing that the script editor can offer in terms of version control unless they make a huge paradigm shift and realize that the push to the cloud and reinventing everything is naive.

7 Likes
#10

While your at it make it so we can have documentation please

9 Likes
#11

Thank you for this change! Always love seeing work being put into the scripting side of things.

9 Likes
#12

So, in other words: SaaS + NIH = Roblox™

6 Likes
#13

Is it possible to copy the diff as HTML? Can’t check because I don’t have it yet.

2 Likes
#14

Do you have plans to add Bookmarks to the Script editor?

5 Likes
#15

It sounds like a good tool to have especially if you are working in a team, but I’m thoroughly confused on where and how to start using this tool. Maybe a documentation or a short video on how to start would help.

1 Like
#16

This is a massive improvement! Thanks you!!

4 Likes
#17

This is great, I’ve been using view script history so often this day making this a very essential powertool! I do hope the current weird issue with the script history browser is fixed though, mine for some reason scrolls down by itself when I click on a version (Hard to notice at times)

1 Like
#18

Honestly a smart move would be to allow roblox developers to integrate other services like github directly in to the editor with this functionality it would rival other engines like unreal godot unity scratch and everything else

you would also make visual studio code a very unnatractive approach and keep your developers on platform

5 Likes
#20

Its nice that this is finally fixed/revamped, cause the diffs were basically useless before due to the lack of proper selection. You could just see non-updated code without being able to move it to the script unless you opened the diff in a text editor. Good update :slight_smile:

1 Like
#21

Thank you! We have Script Version History on the list as well!