Meld is as Good as Araxis Merge but Free

Since I moved back my role to be a software engineer about a year ago, I have started back to use a visual diff and merge tool and I found this free tool called "Meld" . It does exactly Araxis Merge can do and yet it is FREE.

In my very old post: Best Visual File Comparison Software,  I mentioned Araxis Merge is the best and the only drawback is it is NOT free.  Those free tools were not comparative at all but now I think Meld beats them all. The visual is good, merging is cool, you can compare directories and binary files as well. I can't think of any reasons why you won't like it.

Another good thing about Meld is it has the CVS version control comparison but it is only useful if you use CVS. It basically can do a diff to the version that you have in CVS.

Official website: Meldmerge.org


P/S: I haven't tried out the windows version as my development platform is in Linux. I"m using this tool every day. If you're using Linux, you can try to find it in you package installer if it is not installed by default. After you have installed, you can just run "meld" in your terminal.

Google Keep is the Best but Not Perfect

I have been trying around many note taker applications for Android and finally I settle down with Google Keep.

The one that I like most before Google Keep was "FreeNote" and it is very cool for the fact that you can convert your handwriting into smaller fonts that fits into the smaller space unlike other note taker software, where the handwriting eats up most of the space. But too bad that in overall it is not user friendly enough and keep popping up message to request you go for a non-evaluation copy.

Then, I came across this Google Keep by Google of course and have started using it until today.

What I like about Google Keep?

• It is synced with Google - you just need to go here: "https://drive.google.com/keep/" to retrieve all your notes. So technically, if you re-install or change phone, all your notes won't be lost. 

• Very user friendly -  Easy to take note. You can also create a check list note which I find it very useful. Also, you an insert picture and add notes to it (I seldom use this anyway). The notes are also very easy to read because it will automatically re-size to bigger fonts if you have a short note. 

• Supported widget view - You can create a widget for it so you can view all your notes without open the Google Keep application. This is extremely useful if you want to have a quick look at your notes!

• Archive your notes - I'm using this feature to backup my notes especially for notes that are important but seldom refer to. I keep those notes into Archive. You can still view all notes in Archive when you need to, it is just that it won't be shown by default.

Why Not Perfect?

• No search function - Sometimes when your notes grow, you need to do a search but it doesn't have this feature. So you have to manually browse the notes to find it. Quite bad sometimes especially if you have plenty of notes. If Google can implement such feature into this Google Keep, that will make this application perfect!

[10/21/2013 - Update]: Thanks for the blog comment, I didn't notice the search icon (magnifying glass) at the upper right corner. I tested it and it works perfectly. 

• No Category or Label - To organize my notes, I need either category or label feature. No such thing can be done to organize your notes with Google Keep. Again, hopefully Google will implement it then it will make my notes much more organized.

In terms of priority, I would prefer the search function. Google, can you implement it?

[10/21/2013 - Update]: Sorry, the search function is already there. This Google Keep will be perfect if you can categorize your notes! :)

[11/15/2013 - Update]: Now I know why I said the search function is not there. I basically still can't search text within a note. I have a very lengthy note and it will be very hard for find what I look for if the search capability is not there.


You can download Google Keep here. Enjoy!