Compare two files in order to find possible distinctions.
Binary Comparison of Files is the utility for byte-by-byte comparison of two files in order to find possible discrepancies. Consistently read-out bytes of files are compared in a binary mode. The address, code and symbolical representation are shown for different bytes. The codes may be shown as decimal, hexadecimal, octal or binary numbers. When you compare different files you can set different shift parameters for each file, as well as limit the comparison to certain fragments of the file. You can also selectively edit one file using the second one as a master. The found discrepancies may be saved as a text, CSV (Comma Separated Value) or XML file, exported to Excel or printed. Version 3.0 adds large file support (over 4 GB) and features the possibility of fast count of discrepancies in the files under comparison.
The Trial couldn't handle files less than 4 GB as it claims. I tried 251 MB file, and it popup a message that says: unregistered versions can't compare files of such size. How can you test a ware if you can't use it.
Summary
By the look, it seems that it is simple or easy enough to compare discrepancies in files. And for what it does, I find it to be a bit expensive. Probably it could be worth $10 to $15 bucks, but NOT over $20. My intentions for using this program was to see where was the difference between two files to acknowledge. Failing to do that, there's no need to buy this software. I read it was quite slow, probably using QB for DOS (DosBox) and making a little program without need to compile will be more productive.
Incredibly slow!
rforgaard
Pros
Haven't found any.
Cons
I wanted to use this program to compare two binary video files that are 8MB each. Downloaded the trial version, wouldn't let me compare files of this "large" size. So, paid for the full version. It took 5 MINUTES to compare these two 8MB files (8MB is not big for a binary file) on my quad-core Intel i7 processor. WOW! A high school student could write a 20-line C program that compares two binary files and it would run (literally) 100 times faster than that.
So, I uninstalled the program and trashed it. I installed "Compare It!" instead (v4 can compare binary files). "Compare It!" did exactly the same comparison of the same two 8MB files in less than a second, and declared them identical. Yay!
Summary
This program is incredibly slow. If you want to compare two binary files to see if they are identical, use v4 or higher of "Compare It!" instead.
Maybe "Binary Comparison of Files" is useful when trying to look for subtle differences in binary files, where a particular sequence of bytes might be in a different location between the two files. But as an extremely important special case, the software ought to first check to see if the two files are identical before doing complicated algorithms that take forever to run. Good heavens, man!
So now I'm out $35 for a piece of software that is completely useless to me. Sigh. Truthfully, I'm not sure who this software would be useful for. As a software engineer, I feel badly dissing someone else's program, but seriously, stay away from this one.