dandavison/delta

Delta is a tool that improves the way code differences are displayed in the terminal when working with Git. When you run a command like "git diff" or "git show", Git normally outputs a wall of plain text with lines prefixed by "+" or "-" to indicate additions and deletions. Delta replaces that default display with syntax-highlighted, colorized output that makes the changed code much easier to read at a glance. It plugs into Git as a "pager", the program Git hands its output to before displaying it on screen. Once configured, it automatically intercepts all Git diff, log, blame, and grep output. Delta highlights not just whole lines that changed, but the specific words within a line that are different, using an algorithm that computes the minimal difference between the old and new text. It offers a side-by-side view that places the old and new versions of the code next to each other rather than stacking them, line numbers, and keyboard shortcuts to jump between changed sections in a long diff. It can also syntax-highlight the results of search tools like grep and rg. Someone would install Delta when they spend a lot of time reading code changes in the terminal and find the default Git output hard to parse, for example, when reviewing their own commits before pushing, inspecting merge conflicts, or following changes in an unfamiliar codebase. Configuration is done by adding a few lines to the Git configuration file, and display themes can be chosen from the same set used by the bat terminal file viewer. Delta is written in Rust.