MusXML comparison

[John Ruggero]

Wondering if a program exists that compares and tabulates differences between MusXML files. It might be useful for proofreading files that move from one program to another. For example, a Dorico file exported to Finale. My wife mentioned that such programs exist for XML files.

[Zoots]

I don't see why any XML comparison program wouldn't work since XML files are just text files and the program is probably just doing a text comparison.
Of course, some programs do things better than others - a problem with comparison programs can result if there is enough of a discrepancy in the files in an area it can't get properly synced up with the good data later.
Have your wife point you to one she thinks is good and give it a try.

[motet]

There are excellent free file-comparison utilities out there, such as Winmerge for Windows. Doubtless there are similar for the Mac.

[John Ruggero]

But wouldn't the results read out as a text file? Could that be converted back into music notation? I was thinking of something that would show errors by means of colors or whatever in the original file.

[N Grossingink]

If you have the full version of TG Tools, there is a "Compare Entries" utility. It may not be what you're looking for but I thought I'd mention it.

[John Ruggero]

Wow, that looks powerful for comparing Finale files. I will do some experiments to see how it works. Thanks so much, N.

[AnneMillington]

In my line of work before I retired, Altova's suite of applications to manipulate XML six ways from Sunday was the gold standard. You totally could apply them to XML files of any sort, but they are impossibly geeky, and know not of this music notation output of which you speak, as far as I know. But those would be the tools if you are already familiar with them, or interested, and they have a bunch of great documentation pages and tutorials. Maybe your wife is referring to Altova? They offer a 30 day free download.

From Google search:
XML Editor: XMLSpy - Altova
Altova
https://www.altova.com › xmlspy-xml-editor
XMLSpy includes powerful diff/merge tools to compare JSON documents and other text files, as well as directories. For file comparisons, 2- and 3-way comparisons ...

[John Ruggero]

Thank you, AnneMillington. My wife was referring to something she had used to compare Excel spreadsheets, but thought that there might be something along the XML lines that could help me in proofreading. And perhaps I have found it with N's help. I have no experience with XML or coding, so the product you mentioned would be quite a stretch. Maybe with my wife's help...

[AnneMillington]

Hahaha I hear you, John. I own the program, but don't expect I will use it again unless under duress.