diff_format:text is not at all "similar to the Unix 'diff' command line utility"

[kqr]

Having read the above description in the documentation I assumed I could use prettydiff as a plug-in replacement for the Unix diff in a separate program that expects diff output to look a certain way. This is not at all the case, as you can see in this example:

$ diff tmp/difftest1 tmp/difftest2
3,6c3
<     puts "Hello, world"
<   end
<   def goodbye
<     puts "Goodbye, world"
---
>     puts "Hello, #{self}"

$ prettydiff diff diff_format:text source:tmp/difftest1 diff:tmp/difftest2

Line: 3
    puts "Hello, world"
    puts "Hello, #{self}"

Line: 5
  def goodbye
    puts "Goodbye, world"
  end


Pretty Diff found 2 differences on 2 lines.

A program expecting the former will not even nearly be able to parse the latter, and it seems a bit misleading to say the two are "similar".

My suggestions for solutions are to either:

• Remove the statement about similarity to Unix diff; or, ideally
• Add a new diff_format:normal which actually does output something similar to the Unix diff "normal" format!