1. COMP File Compare



               COMP is a handy utility for comparing any two text files.
          COMP creates a report clearly showing all of the differences
          between the two files.  It can save you hours of time from
          hand-comparing two versions of a file.  It can be used for 

               Batch files           Legal briefs      Newsletters
               Computer programs     Letters           Parts lists
               Contracts             Mailing lists     Reports
               Documents             Manuscripts       Rosters
               Instructions          Memos             Schedules
               Inventories           Messages          Webpages
               Invoices              News articles

          or any other type of text file.

               COMP detects additions, deletions and changes of as little
          as a single letter, or as much as 50 lines of text.  It shows all
          of the differences in a clear report that indicates the line
          numbers in both files, and shows both blocks of changed text.
          Even blank lines are clearly indicated.



          TABLE OF CONTENTS


          1. COMP File Compare
            1.1. Using COMP
            1.2. Installing COMP
            1.3. Output file



          1.1. Using COMP


               COMP can be called and used two ways.  You can name the
          files directly in the COMP command, like this 

               comp oldversion newversion

          or you can simply type COMP on the command line and let COMP
          prompt you for the file names, like this 

               comp

          You type the file names when COMP requests them, like this 

               File 1: oldversion
               File 2: newversion
               Output:

          
               COMP will write the list of differences to the file COMP.LST
          unless you want the list to go to a different file.  You can
          specify your own output file on the command line, like this 

               comp oldfile newfile diff

          or let COMP prompt you for the file, like this 

               comp

               File 1: members.old
               File 2: members.new
               Output: changes

          In these examples the list of differences will be written to the
          files DIFF and CHANGES, respectively.  You can view the changes
          with any text editor, such as Edit, Notebook, WordPad or NotePad,
          or with any browser.



          1.2. Installing COMP


               You install COMP by copying it from the distribution disk to
          any place on your computer where you have executable programs.
          For example, to a directory called EXE or COM, or to a folder
          within \Program Files\.



          1.3. Output file


               The difference list in the output file is designed to be
          self-explanatory.  Here is a typical difference list 

               File compare
                 File 1 = DOGS1
                 File 2 = DOGS2

               File 1 Line 11
                  American Black and Tan Coonhound
               File 2 Line 11
                  American Black & Tan Coonhound

               File 1 Line 29
                  Bassett Artesian Normand
                  Bassett Bleu de Gascogne
                  Bassett Fauve de Bretagne
                  Bassett Hound
               File 2 Line 29
                  Basset Artesian Normand
                  Basset Bleu de Gascogne
                  Basset Fauve de Bretagne
                  Basset Hound

               File 1 Line 39
                  Belgian Shepherd
                  Belgian Shepherd Dog
               File 2 Line 39
                  Belgian Shepherd Dog

               File 1 Line 81
                  Chart Polski
               File 2 Line 80
                  Cesky Fousek
                  Cesky Terrier
                  Chart Polski

               File 1 Line 99
                  Dachshund
               File 2 Line 96
                  ...
                  Dachshund

               5 differences

          In this list, which compares the files Dogs1 and Dogs2, the 5
          differences are 

               (1) On line 11 Dogs1 has "and" but Dogs2 has an ampersand &.

               (2) On lines 29 through 32 Dogs1 has "Bassett" but Dogs2 has
          "Basset".

               (3) At line 39 Dogs1 has the line
                        Belgian Shepherd
                   which is missing in Dogs2.

               (4) At line 80 Dogs2 has the 2 lines
                        Cesky Fousek
                        Cesky Terrier
                   which are absent in Dogs1.

               (5) At line 96 Dogs2 has a blank line, which is missing in
          Dogs1.
                   Blank lines are indicated by 3 dots ... to make them
          visible.