[OS X TeX] questions concerning latexdiff

[Friedrich Vosberg]

Morning.

I'm using MacOS X 10.3.6 and Gerben Wierdas LaTeX installed by 
i-installer and TeXShop.

I want to compare two versions of a text. So I've looked arround and 
found latexdiff:

     ftp://ftp.dante.de/tex-archive/help/Catalogue/entries/latexdiff.html

This is a script written in PERL for that purpose using the command:

     latexdiff [options] olderfile.tex newerfile.tex > changes.tex

But there are serious troubles and bugs when using for instance german 
umlauts e.g. ä, ö, ü, Ä, Ö, Ü. If I want to compare two files 
containing umlauts latexdiff creates the file changes.tex. But if the 
files olderfile.tex and newerfile.tex are large and contain a lot of 
umlauts the run of the script fails. In every case it produce a lot of 
warnings like:

===================================================================
TiBook:~/Desktop/SchVGDiff vatolin$ latexdiff --append-safecmd=emph 
1.tex 2.tex > diff.tex

WARNING: Inconsistency in length of input string and parsed string:
DEBUG Original length 178  Parsed length 160
DEBUG Input string:  |\paragraph{The Question}
Why do the Germans use strange characters in words like Ȁrger?, 
?w?hlen?, ȅffnung?, ?bl?, Ȇbung?, ?L?ge??
\PAR
\paragraph{The Answer}
They love it.
|
DEBUG Token parsing: |\paragraph{The Question}
+Why +do +the +Germans +use +strange +characters +in +words +like 
+rger+, +w+hlen+, +ffnung+, +bl+d+, +bung+, +L+ge+?
+\PAR
+\paragraph{The Answer}
+They +love +it+.
|
cters in words like Ȁrger
                     ^^^^^^
Missing characters near word 11 last: 81  pos: 87 Length: 4 Match: 
|rger| (indicates faulty or non-standard latex code)
in words like Ȁrger?,
                     ^^^
[...]
===================================================================

The files I want to compare are:

===================================================================
%% 1. tex
%%
\documentclass {scrbook}
\usepackage [ngerman] {babel}
\usepackage [applemac] {inputenc}
\usepackage [T1] {fontenc}

\title {The German »Umlaut«}
\author {Friedrich Vosberg}
\date {}

\begin{document}
\paragraph{The Question}
Why do the Germans use strange characters in words like »Ärger«, 
»wählen«, »Öffnung«, »blöd«, »Übung«, »Lüge«?

\paragraph{The Answer}
They love it.
\end{document}
===================================================================
%% 2.tex
%%
\documentclass [draft, DIV10, BCOR7.5mm, twoside, openany] {scrbook}
\usepackage [ngerman] {babel}
\usepackage [applemac] {inputenc}
\usepackage [T1] {fontenc}

\title {The German »Umlaut«}
\author {Friedrich Vosberg}
\date {}

\begin{document}
\paragraph{The Question}
Why do the Germans use so pretty characters in words like »Ärger«, 
»wählen«, »Öffnung«, »blöd«, »Übung«, »Lüge«?

\paragraph{The Answer}
They love it \emph{so} much.
\end{document}
===================================================================

Does anybody know how can I compare files without warnings and mistakes?

Thanks a lot and kind regards. Friedrich

--
MacOS X i like a wigwam: No fences, no gates, but an apache inside.
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