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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Review Assistant
Score 7.0 out of 10
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Review Assistant is a peer code review tool which integrates with popular control systems namely: TFS, Subversion, Mercurial, Git and Perforce. It is an plugin for Visual Studio 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015 developed to enhance the team development process. The tool includes support for formal code review and allows users to add comments to a piece of code or to the entire review level. It allows teams to discuss code without scheduled meetings.
Combined with Code Compare and running Review Assistant on the TFS server, it provides a good way to share code and comments amount our team. It does everything we need it to do for code reviews and has a reporting tool.
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.
Review Assistant does everything that I was hoping the default Visual Studio reviews would do. The iterations through accept/reject were the key winner.
The functionality for code reviews is great, especially the ability to comment on specific lines of code.
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.
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.
Microsoft provides a handy feature for code review inside the Visual Studio IDE. Review Assistant, though providing a similar code review user experience, supports work scenarios that are not covered by the Microsoft's IDE. Moreover, the version control systems support is broader in Review Assistant.
The tool saves a huge amount of time while reviewing the code. Review Assistant supports threaded comments, so team members can discuss code without scheduled meetings.
