Beyond Compare from Scooter Software headquartered in Madison is a utility for comparing different version of documents and seeing the differences. It also allows changes to be merged and synchronized.
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Crucible
Score 10.0 out of 10
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Atlasssian Crucible is a peer review tool for finding bugs and defects in version control tools Subversion, Git, Mercurial, CVS, and Perforce.
Depends on the version control and devops process your development teams adopt. Git (via Bitbucket, GitHub, GitLab, etc...) has become the new industry norm, and using pull requests can often provide the same code review features Crucible is used for. However, if you require code review beyond change/diff based (i.e. via pull request), then Crucible allows you to review code with more granular control, such as on per file basis.
It allows for scrolling through both documents at the same line level meaning you are not required to skip between files to look at what is different between the two.
A comparison between registry hives can easily pinpoint issues for hundreds and thousands of records.
Tabbing can allow for multiple compares to take place at the same time.
I often need to exclude folders or files from the comparison. Currently, the fastest way is to right-click and then pick "exclude" from the context menu. Having the ability to multi-select folders and then exclude the group would be nice.
Sometimes we need to verify MD5 and SHA256 fingerprints, and this would be a nice enhancement within the tool.
It can sometimes be a bit slow to load. A server reboot for us tends to solve that issue. I'm not sure if it is a server issue, or maybe Crucible may have some caching issues.
I wish that you could easily stop the review creation process, rather than abandoning it.
Again, given the intuitive nature of this program, there is barely any learning curve needed. It is simple, reliable, accurate, and just one of those tools you always have with you and rarely think about until you don't have it. Then it is a case of OMG what was I thinking? This program is just very easy to use, and that makes it more valuable to me than some of my other software tools that cost significantly more.
I've only contacted Beyond Compare support for one issue ever, and that was an issue we had because we didn't track our license properly. Their support staff was friendly and helpful, quickly identifying the lost license key and helping us understand what our current license terms. We couldn't be happier with the responsiveness of their support.
When Beyond Compare 4 came out, we briefly considered looking at other tools, like Code Compare, but in all reality, we never really considered it a viable option. Beyond Compare offers such a comprehensive solution, especially with its Pro License (and 3-way merging functionality.). Our development team is so comfortable with Beyond Compare at this point that it would represent a learning curve to shift off of it.
Gitlab and GitHub are very comparable to Crucible, and would probably be my first choice if those were the tools used for versioning as they are directly linked to git. Crucible was chosen by a current client and I had no choice in its selection. I would probably have chosen GitHub if given a say.
I am not involved in the acquisition of Crucible so I cannot comment on the financial investment but I believe it is a necessary tool to have in any software shop, small or big.
As a developer, having Crucible as the code review process is a great asset and will save time and reduce risks which I believe is a positive return of investment.
