aiCompare

aiCompare is a modern, high-performance, and visually stunning file and folder comparison and merging tool. It integrates a blazing-fast Rust Diff Engine with an ultra-premium Compose Desktop GUI (Kotlin) using JNI/FFI JNA bindings.

Designed with a premium minimalist aesthetic, aiCompare delivers an elegant and intelligent user experience that outclasses traditional tools.

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✨ Key Features

1. Smart Myers Diff Engine & Unimportant Diff Demotion

• Computes standard line-level differences using Myers diff.
• Runs a post-processing secondary filter (via UnimportantDiffClassifier) to identify insignificant modifications (e.g., whitespace variations, code comments inside or outside block comments).
• Safely demotes minor differences to UNIMPORTANT (colored in secondary blue/gray text) while keeping primary structural variations highlighted.

2. Fuzzy Folder Alignment

• Scans left and right directory structures in parallel using Rayon.
• Utilizes the Sorensen-Dice coefficient similarity metric to automatically detect and pair renamed files or folders (similarity threshold $\ge$ 60%).

3. Drag-and-Drop Manual Alignment

• Allows users to interactively drag a left orphan row and drop it onto a right orphan row of matching type.
• Features high-fidelity micro-interactions:
  • Dragged rows display with partial transparency.
  • Hovering over a valid right target lights it up with a vivid purple glow, providing immediate visual feedback.

4. Self-Cross Backup Alignment

• Detects when comparing a directory to itself (leftFolderPath == rightFolderPath).
• Automatically filters and pairs backup files (e.g., matching hello.c with backups like hello.c.old, hello.c.bak, hello_v1.c, or hello-copy.c).
• Visualized with a custom low-key cyan/blue color scheme and a dedicated yellow historical backup icon (↩) in the central tracking lane.

5. Premium UI Design System

• Built with a dark mode color palette (Harmonious grays, accent amber, and violet tones).
• Displays folder comparison nodes with slant duotone folder icons rendered live via Compose Canvas to represent mixed status directories ("some files changed, some identical").
• Fast rendering with micro-animations and smooth transitions.

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🛠️ Technology Stack

• Computation Core (Rust): High-performance parallel comparisons using Rayon, SHA256 hashing, and Myers diff.
• UI Layer (Kotlin & Compose Desktop): Modern declarative interface with hardware-accelerated Canvas drawing.
• Bridge (UniFFI & JNA): Auto-generated FFI bindings to load the compiled Rust DLL/dylib dynamically.

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🚀 Quick Start & Build Instructions

Prerequisites

• Rust Toolchain: Cargo and rustc installed.
• JDK 21+: Java Development Kit version 21 or later. (Android Studio's JBR is recommended).

1. Build the Rust Library

Navigate to the Rust core project and build the release target:

cd rust_core
cargo build --release

2. Generate UniFFI Bindings (Optional)

If you modify the FFI surface inside Rust, regenerate the Kotlin bindings:

cargo run --features=uniffi/cli --bin uniffi-bindgen generate --library target/release/compare_core.dll --language kotlin --out-dir ../src/main/kotlin/bindings

3. Run the App

From the root workspace directory, run:

# Set Java Home to JBR or JDK 21 path
$env:JAVA_HOME = "C:\Program Files\Android\Android Studio\jbr"

# Launch Compose Desktop
.\gradlew.bat run

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📂 Project Structure

• rust_core/: Rust library containing diff and VFS implementations.
• src/main/kotlin/: Compose Desktop UI and ViewModel.
  • bindings/uniffi/: Automatically generated UniFFI bridge code.
• test_data/: Sample files and directories for testing diff scenarios.
• Documents/: Detailed technical guides and design documentation.