Since diff was first published in 1974, file comparison tools have been a staple of any developers toolbelt. Especially when using git, I run diffs all the time. My default GUI was Apple’s FileMerge app (bundled with Apple Developer Tools). I say was because it’s been completely blown out of the water by Kaleidoscope 2.

Kaleidoscope by Black Pixel surpasses any other diff tool I’ve ever used. It’s stunningly beautiful and intuitive. Powerful too. It can compare text, folders and even images. It nails color highlighting, and gives you three different views for comparing files (Block, Fluid and it’s new “Unified” view).

The best part? It’s fully integrated with git (and SVN and Mercurial). That means that commands like git difftool or git mergetool can use Kaleidoscope to compare and merge files. After installing Kaleidoscope and it’s command line tool, ksdiff, you can run git difftool -t Kaleidoscope to compare files in the app. Alternatively, set it as the default difftool and mergetool by adding the following to your git config:

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[difftool "Kaleidoscope"]
  cmd = ksdiff --partial-changeset --relative-path \"$MERGED\" -- \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\"
[diff]
  tool = Kaleidoscope
[difftool]
  prompt = false

[mergetool "Kaleidoscope"]
  cmd = ksdiff --merge --output \"$MERGED\" --base \"$BASE\" -- \"$LOCAL\" --snapshot \"$REMOTE\" --snapshot
  trustExitCode = true
[mergetool]
  prompt = false
[merge]
  tool = Kaleidoscope

It’s a little pricey at $70, but it’s worth every penny. It’s even on sale 50% off until Jan 30!

Next time you see Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result you’ll be grateful to have Kaleidoscope in your toolbelt.