For the previous two feature releases, Kaleidoscope gained the ability to talk to git for the Git File History and the Merge Context Shelf. For this release, we wanted to take some time to refine and improve those features and add smaller bits, with the goal to increase your productivity and make Kaleidoscope more fun.
In this second of our series about the Kaleidoscope File Shelf we will look at how to deal with content coming from the clipboard, from integrations such as the ksdiff tool, or from Git.
You might never have noticed that Kaleidoscope has a thing called File Shelf. In this two-part series, we’ll show how you can use it, including some advanced examples.
Part 1 explains how to conquer multi-file comparisons using the File Shelf and the Navigation menu.
Following the addition of Git File History in Kaleidoscope 4.1, in this latest update we wanted to tackle merge conflicts by adding more context provided by Git. New tools enable you to understand conflicts better and thus resolve them faster.
With the first major update to Kaleidoscope 4, we are entering completely new territory: Kaleidoscope can now directly talk to Git. While Kaleidoscope could always integrate with Git, until now it could only show the results of a Git operation, such as git difftool and git mergetool, which was typically initiated through a Git client like Tower. For the 4.1 update, we decided to focus on the ability to display and compare multiple revisions of a file.
Kaleidoscope 4 comes with an entirely new companion app called Kaleidoscope Prism. By default, it launches along with Kaleidoscope and remains running, so you may have noticed a new icon sitting quietly in your menu bar. Kaleidoscope Prism can change the way you work, with new options for starting and adding to comparisons, even if Kaleidoscope isn’t currently open.
Quite a few users over the years have told us they need to be able to add new text into comparisons. Kaleidoscope 4 adds that ability by allowing you to convert any comparison into a merge that can be edited.
Text filters reduce visual noise in a text comparison, noise that distracts from the differences you do care about. They are useful in a lot of scenarios, in particular when dealing with generated text like logs or files that contain “random” data, like timestamps or identifiers.
A common workflow in Git is to use feature branches, where work is focused on one specific task. The Changeset functionality in Kaleidoscope helps you see exactly what has been done in a feature branch.
The Services menu, originally part of NeXTSTEP, was introduced to the Mac with the advent of OS X in 2001. Services never received a lot of love or major updates. Luckily, they continue to work to this day and can be remarkably helpful. We’ll show you how you can benefit from Services, in particular the services that Kaleidoscope provides.