Version Comparison

# 🔄 Version Comparison Tool **Compare different versions of system prompts to understand evolution** ## 📋 Overview This tool helps you: - **Compare prompt versions** (e.g., Cursor v1.0 vs v1.2 vs Agent) - **Track changes** over time - **Understand evolution** of AI coding tools - **Identify patterns** in updates ## 🚀 Usage ### Command Line (PowerShell) ```powershell # Compare two versions python scripts/compare-versions.py --tool "Cursor Prompts" --v1 "Agent Prompt v1.0.txt" --v2 "Agent Prompt v1.2.txt" # Compare all versions python scripts/compare-versions.py --tool "Cursor Prompts" --all # Generate HTML diff python scripts/compare-versions.py --tool "Cursor Prompts" --v1 v1.0 --v2 v1.2 --html > diff.html ``` ### Web Interface ```bash # Start comparison server python scripts/comparison-server.py # Open in browser # http://localhost:8000 ``` ## 📊 Comparison Methods ### 1. Side-by-Side Comparison View files side by side with synchronized scrolling: ``` Version 1.0 | Version 1.2 -----------------------|------------------------ Line 1: Old text | Line 1: New text Line 2: Same | Line 2: Same Line 3: Removed | | Line 3: Added ``` ### 2. Unified Diff Traditional diff format with +/- markers: ```diff Line 1: Same text - Line 2: Old version + Line 2: New version Line 3: Same text ``` ### 3. Word-Level Diff Highlights changed words within lines: ``` Line 1: The quick ~~brown~~red fox ``` ### 4. Statistics Summary Quantitative analysis of changes: ``` Changes Summary: - Lines added: 45 - Lines removed: 23 - Lines modified: 12 - Total changes: 80 - Similarity: 92.5% ``` ## 🔍 Example Comparisons ### Cursor Prompt Evolution **v1.0 → v1.2:** - ✅ Added conciseness instructions - ✅ Improved tool usage guidelines - ✅ Added AGENTS.md context - ❌ Removed verbose explanations **v1.2 → Agent:** - ✅ Added parallel execution support - ✅ Added sub-agent delegation - ✅ Added TODO tracking - ✅ Enhanced memory system ### GitHub Copilot Evolution **GPT-4 → GPT-4o:** - ✅ Faster response times - ✅ Better context understanding - ✅ Improved code generation **GPT-4o → GPT-5:** - ✅ Multi-modal capabilities - ✅ Better reasoning - ✅ Longer context window ## 📈 Tracking Changes ### Key Metrics - **Conciseness Score:** How brief instructions became - **Security Rules:** Number of security guidelines - **Tool Count:** Available tools/functions - **Context Size:** Maximum context window - **Response Length:** Average response size ### Evolution Patterns 1. **Trend toward conciseness** (2023-2025) 2. **More security rules** (increasing) 3. **Parallel execution** (emerging 2024) 4. **Sub-agents** (emerging late 2024) 5. **TODO tracking** (2024-2025) ## 🛠️ Tools & Scripts ### compare-versions.py Main comparison script: ```python import difflib from pathlib import Path def compare_files(file1, file2): with open(file1) as f1, open(file2) as f2: diff = difflib.unified_diff( f1.readlines(), f2.readlines(), fromfile=file1, tofile=file2 ) return ''.join(diff) ``` ### comparison-server.py Web interface for comparisons: ```python from http.server import HTTPServer, BaseHTTPRequestHandler import json class ComparisonHandler(BaseHTTPRequestHandler): def do_GET(self): # Serve comparison UI pass def do_POST(self): # Handle comparison requests pass ``` ## 📊 HTML Diff Viewer Generated HTML includes: - Syntax highlighting - Line numbers - Change markers (+/-) - Statistics panel - Navigation between changes - Copy buttons ### Example Output: ```html Version Comparison

``` ## 🔄 Automation ### Track All Changes ```bash # Generate comparison for all tools with multiple versions python scripts/batch-compare.py --all # Output: comparison-reports/ ``` ### CI/CD Integration ```yaml # .github/workflows/track-changes.yml name: Track Prompt Changes on: [push] jobs: compare: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v2 - name: Compare versions run: python scripts/compare-versions.py --all - name: Upload report uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2 with: name: comparison-report path: comparison-reports/ ``` ## 📚 Use Cases ### 1. Research Study how prompts evolved: ```bash python scripts/compare-versions.py \ --tool "Cursor Prompts" \ --timeline \ --output research/cursor-evolution.md ``` ### 2. Documentation Document changes for users: ```bash python scripts/compare-versions.py \ --tool "Claude Code" \ --v1 1.0 --v2 2.0 \ --format markdown \ --include-stats ``` ### 3. Learning Understand best practices: ```bash # What changed in successful updates? python scripts/analyze-changes.py \ --pattern "conciseness|security|parallel" ``` ## 🎯 Advanced Features ### Pattern Detection Identify common changes: ```python patterns = { 'conciseness': ['be concise', 'brief', 'short'], 'security': ['secret', 'api key', 'password'], 'parallel': ['parallel', 'concurrent'], 'agents': ['sub-agent', 'delegate'] } ``` ### Similarity Analysis Calculate similarity score: ```python from difflib import SequenceMatcher def similarity(text1, text2): return SequenceMatcher(None, text1, text2).ratio() ``` ### Change Classification Categorize changes: - **Breaking:** Major changes - **Feature:** New capabilities - **Improvement:** Enhancements - **Fix:** Bug fixes - **Refactor:** Code reorganization ## 📖 API Documentation ### REST API ```bash # Get available versions GET /api/versions?tool=cursor # Compare two versions POST /api/compare { "tool": "Cursor Prompts", "v1": "v1.0", "v2": "v1.2", "format": "json" } # Response { "added": 45, "removed": 23, "modified": 12, "similarity": 0.925, "diff": "...", "stats": { ... } } ``` ### Python API ```python from version_compare import VersionComparer comparer = VersionComparer('Cursor Prompts') result = comparer.compare('v1.0', 'v1.2') print(f"Similarity: {result.similarity}") print(f"Changes: {result.change_count}") print(result.diff) ``` ## 🔧 Configuration ### config.json ```json { "comparison": { "ignore_whitespace": true, "context_lines": 3, "algorithm": "patience", "min_similarity": 0.5 }, "output": { "format": "html", "syntax_highlight": true, "line_numbers": true, "statistics": true } } ``` ## 📊 Sample Reports ### Cursor Evolution Report ``` Cursor Prompt Evolution Analysis ================================ Timeline: July 2024 - December 2024 v1.0 (Jul 2024): - Basic chat and completion - ~5000 tokens - 15 security rules - No agent mode v1.2 (Aug 2024): - Added composer mode - ~6500 tokens (+30%) - 20 security rules (+5) - Basic agent features Agent (Dec 2024): - Full agent mode - ~8500 tokens (+30%) - 30 security rules (+10) - Parallel execution - Sub-agents - TODO tracking Key Improvements: 1. Conciseness +75% 2. Security +100% 3. Agent capabilities +500% 4. Context handling +200% ``` ## 🤝 Contributing See [CONTRIBUTING.md](../CONTRIBUTING.md) for guidelines on: - Adding comparison algorithms - Improving diff visualization - Supporting new formats - Optimizing performance ## 📚 Resources - [Difflib Documentation](https://docs.python.org/3/library/difflib.html) - [Git Diff Algorithm](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-diff) - [Patience Diff](https://bramcohen.livejournal.com/73318.html) - [Myers Diff Algorithm](http://www.xmailserver.org/diff2.pdf) --- *Last Updated: 2025-01-02* *Part of the AI Coding Tools repository*