Meld vs Kaleidoscope
When comparing Meld vs Kaleidoscope, the Slant community recommends Meld for most people. In the question“What are the best folder/file compare/diff tools for either OSX, Linux or Windows?” Meld is ranked 1st while Kaleidoscope is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose Meld is:
In addition to comparing two files it also allows you to edit them right in place. What's more, the diffs are updated automatically.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Supports editing files directly
In addition to comparing two files it also allows you to edit them right in place. What's more, the diffs are updated automatically.
Pro Free and open source
Meld is freely available on Linux, Windows and OSX (through MacPorts, Fink or Brew).
It's also open source and distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Pro Comparing two or more different folders is supported
Meld allows users to compare two or three different folders for differences. But if a user wants to 'zoom in' and compare files contained in these folders, Meld gives you the ability to do so and launch file comparisons between files contained in different folders or in the same folder.
Pro Supports some simple version control actions
Meld supports the major version control systems (Git, Mercurial, Subversion and Bazaar). You can launch file comparisons between different versions to see what parts changed before commiting.
Simple version control actions are also supported and possible. For example: commit/update/add/remove/delete files.
Pro Three way comparisons
You can compare up to three different files for differences. Plus you can edit files from the comparison view and the diff will automatically update.
Pro Simple GUI
Pro Easy to use and visually appealing
Stragihtforward and you don't need to read tutorials to use it. Just click and select and you instantly see how the difference and merges are connected to eachother.
3 sub- windows, instead of 4, which reduces the mess during merge and let you see more of the surrounding files rather than just 5 lines.
Pro Fast on Linux
Relatively fast on Linux.
Pro Internationalization
Through the GNOME Translation project and the translators that have worked for it, Meld is available in multiple languages. You can check if your language is supported in the translation statistics page.
If you can't find your language or if your language translation is unfinished and you want to help, you can do so by joining the GNOME Translation Project.
Pro Simple UI
Kaleidoscope has a beautiful and simple UI. It displays the two files that are being compared side to side, highlighting all the differences in a way that's easy to understand.
Pro Diff within a line
When working in code, line-by-line diff can still be hard to spot small changes within the line. Kaleidoscope will highlight what has changed.
Pro Supports comparing folders
Pro Image difference viewer
Kaleidoscope supports image diff viewer in addition to git diff. It's able to find even the slightest changes between two versions of the same image.
Cons
Con Slow on large files
While larger files are supported, they can take a long time to load. (20,000 lines+)
Con Program opens slow on Windows
Update: This issue should be fixed on Meld-3.18.1-win32.msi released on 27 May 2018. See http://meldmerge.org/news.html
Con Very slow mac OS port
Con No option to compare individual rows horizontally
Unlike other options, like Beyond Compare, Meld has no option to compare individual rows horizontally.
Con Not having a base value to reference can make merging less certain
Con No Explorer context menu integration
In Windows, there is no option to right-click and compare files easily.
Con No official OSX Support
Some attempts have been made to port, but nothing easy or fully working.
Con Missing contextual command line options
Not all contextual elements are exposed to the cli. Specifically the ability to follow our not follow symlinks, but also things like file system metadata parsing. These options and others can only be toggled via the gui's settings window.
Con Mac OS only
Kaleidoscope is a Mac OS X only app.
Con Paid software
Kaleidoscope is not free, costing $69.99.