Smerge instead of ediff?

[alexispurslane]

I personally find ediff counterintuitive and annoying to use, especially with how it rearranges windows even with opening new frames turned off, and its diff3 format. Additionally, both magit and gptel, which I also use, either literally use Smerge mode, or something very similar (in the latter's case), so switching from one to the other adds an impedance mismatch.

Describe the solution you'd like

An option to use Smerge instead of ediff to accept or reject code changes (or even just letting me know if it's possible to do via advice).

Describe alternatives you've considered
I tried to customize ediff, and I've certainly tried to learn it multiple times, but I just can't like it.

Additional context
Thank you for your work!

[alexispurslane]

Well, for now, I've made a horrible hack:

(defun diff-buffers-to-second-with-smerge (buffer1 buffer2)
    "Run diff on contents of BUFFER1 and BUFFER2, put result in BUFFER2, and enable smerge-mode.
        The diff output will be in unified format which is compatible with smerge-mode."
    (interactive (list (read-buffer "Base buffer: ")
                       (read-buffer "Changes buffer: ")))
    (let ((content1 (with-current-buffer buffer1
                        (buffer-string)))
          (content2 (with-current-buffer buffer2
                        (buffer-string))))
        ;; Write contents to temp files for diff
        (let ((a (make-temp-file "diff-buffer1-"))
              (b (make-temp-file "diff-buffer2-"))
              (out (make-temp-file "diff-buffer-out-")))
            (unwind-protect
                    (progn
                        (with-temp-file a
                            (insert content1))
                        (with-temp-file b
                            (insert content2))
                        ;; Run diff with unified format and get output
                        (let ((diff-output (shell-command-to-string (format "git merge-file -L %s -L B -L %s -p %s %s %s && cat %s" a b a out b out))))
                            ;; Put diff output in second buffer
                            (with-current-buffer buffer2
                                (erase-buffer)
                                (insert diff-output)
                                (smerge-start-session)
                                (message "Diff output inserted and smerge-mode enabled in buffer %S" 
                                         buffer2))
                            (switch-to-buffer-other-window buffer2)))
                ;; Cleanup temp files
                (delete-file a)
                (delete-file b)))))
(advice-add 'aidermacs--show-ediff-for-file
                    :around (defun user/aidermacs-merge-override (oldfun &rest r)
                                (cl-letf (((symbol-function 'ediff-buffers) #'diff-buffers-to-second-with-smerge))
                                    (apply oldfun r))))

[MatthewZMD]

Great, if you think it works, feel free to open a PR to introduce this option :)

[alexispurslane]

Sweet! Once my house has internet again and I've hammered out some bugs I'll make a PR! — alexis (she/her) Sent from Proton Mail Android -------- Original Message --------On 8/5/25 1:53 AM, Matthew Zeng wrote:MatthewZMD left a comment (MatthewZMD/aidermacs#162) Great, if you think it works, feel free to open a PR to introduce this option :) —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***> [ { ***@***.***": "http://schema.org", ***@***.***": "EmailMessage", "potentialAction": { ***@***.***": "ViewAction", "target": "#162 (comment)", "url": "#162 (comment)", "name": "View Issue" }, "description": "View this Issue on GitHub", "publisher": { ***@***.***": "Organization", "name": "GitHub", "url": "https://github.com" } } ]