/compare

tool to compare similar stuff

compare

web tool to compare similar stuff

similar to socialcompare.com, vschart.com, diffen, ...

Requirements :

  • define a tree list of features (functions), can be seen as the table of contents of a book
    • describes as code, short label (display), multi-line description with markup
    • incremental definition : can easily re-arrange the tree
  • list of solutions and how they implement features
    • yes/no/may/n-a (scoring), a short label, a multi-line description with minimal markup for links, code blocks and bullets
  • work in grid mode, can transpose fcts/sols as rows/cols depending on expected view point
  • can be fully handled with keyboard only (menus, shortcuts)
  • can display multiple levels of features or zoom within
  • can hide/show some functions and some solutions : hide/show all, flip

History :

  • 1999-2000 : write as html/js-asp/vb-xml using xml files as backend
    • all ui is built in html/js, use xmlhttprequest from ie5 to read/write data
    • the asp/vb code is only returning xml data from the files and updating xml files from url encoded post data
    • one xml file per compared stuff (all features and solutions)
    • hosted on some free asp hoster
  • 200x : rewrite as html/js-php-mysql hosted on free.fr
  • 200x : tentative to rewrite on google appengine (python-google db)
  • 2013 : optimize the ui part, using local wamp installation : more keyb commands, transpose, easier filtering
  • 2015 : rewrite as html/js over github api and yaml files