Improve apply_diff tool for better efficiency and reliability

[DaveScream]

Hello,
I would like to propose an improvement to the apply_diff tool. Currently, I've noticed a few issues with its functionality:

1. Frequent Failures: The apply_diff tool often fails to apply changes correctly.
2. Inefficient Token and Context Usage: The current implementation requires the model to first reproduce the entire block of incorrect code within a search block, and only then provide the correct code in a replace block. This process consumes a significant amount of tokens and unnecessarily fills up the context window. And ultimately, the result always comes down to replacing entire lines of code.

To address these issues, I suggest redesigning the tool to allow the model to directly specify the file and line numbers for the code that needs to be replaced, along with the new content. For example, it could specify replacing 6 lines 30-35 with null content (a deletion), or replacing lines 30-31 with 30 new lines of content (code expansion). This would be much more efficient and reliable.

Here is an example of the proposed syntax:

<replace file="./main.py" lines="11-85">
def my_new_function2(blablabla):
    blablabla
</replace>

<replace file="./main.py" lines="87">
# end if new logic
</replace>

<replace file="./main.py" lines="87-102">
# code was deleted
</replace>

Then, on the client-side, this could be converted into the full apply_diff format for display in VS Code. The client would be responsible for fetching the content of the specified lines from the file and pasting it to the 'search' block, while the 'replace' block would be taken with the content provided by the model.

This approach would prevent the model from having to reproduce the old code and would likely lead to a more robust and efficient implementation of the apply_diff tool.

Thank you for your consideration.

[DaveScream]

Why not?