Compare mode is a mode that allows you to compare two different versions of the same ontology. In Compare mode, the current ontology is treated as the new version and when initializing the tab, you point Prompt to the old version to compare to.
Prompt uses a set of heuristics to compare two versions of an ontology and find corresponding frames in the two versions. In addition to comparing names and types of the frames, PromptDiff looks at the structure of two versions, suggesting, for example, that a single unmatched sibling of the same parent in the two different versions may be the same frame with a different name. By concentrating on the differences between two similar projects (rather than the similarities of two different projects as in merge), compare can give much better results for the type of reconciliation required in version control.
Note: If you are familiar with programming environments such as UNIX,
note that the functionality of compare mode is similar to comparison tools such
as the UNIX tool diff
, but is based on the ontological structure
of the project, rather than the line-by-line difference between the files. In
addition, the tree view is similar to the Compare Documents mode in Microsoft
Word.
For compare mode, the Prompt tab consists of two windows: the Tree View, where the two versions are shown in a single hierarchy; and the Table View, which shows all the frames in the two compared projects and lists the similarities and differences.
Next: The Prompt Tab