Is there a better diff tool than KDiff3 (moved blocks) ?

[robatwilliams]

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/572237/whats-the-best-three-way-merge-tool

Especially identifying moved code like git diff --color-moved does.

[robatwilliams]

There are nicer looking tools, may be even better, but none of them are as capable as git diff for moved block detection.

WinMerge will do it as long as the move is within the same file, and the indentation isn't changed. Neither is often the case with moved blocks while refactoring, so it's not that useful. It's not enabled by default. It'll colour the block in dark orange on both sides.

The following claim or are said to support moved block detection, but didn't do so in my experiments: Code Compare, ExamDiff Pro, Meld. Perhaps they need a block to be longer than one line. I didn't seek out semantic compare tools, although it appears that Code Compare may rely on its semantic features for moved block detection. GitHub doesn't do it either.

The best I've found:

git diff --color-moved --color-moved-ws=allow-indentation-change HEAD^..HEAD

A block needs to be 20 alphanumeric characters long to be detected. The characters don't need to be consecutive, so the line return numerator / denominator; for example is a block of length 26.

Requires Git 2.17.0 for colouring moves, and 2.18.0 for allowing indentation change.

Can be configured to always use these flags:
https://git-scm.com/docs/git-diff#git-diff---color-movedltmodegt
https://git-scm.com/docs/git-diff#git-diff---color-moved-wsltmodesgt

Test cases used for investigation: https://github.com/robatwilliams/diff-hero