Object Compare (Compare RPT, .NET, MSI, etc)

Object Compare is an object comparison program targeting Microsoft enterprise services and developer technologies. The software assists with discovering changes to various objects on local and remote computers, providing a common toolset for diagnosing change.

Microsoft developers develop and maintain software using a diverse number of technologies, including .Net Assemblies and COM components, Microsoft SQL Server databases, COM+ Component Services applications, Crystal Reports, Access databases, Windows Installers and more. Object Compare provides a drill down approach for determining differences between these components, profiling changes between live environments on local and remote computers. In addition to live comparisons, Object Compare supports snapshots of components for comparing base line change over time.

Objects Supported

The current release of Object Compare supports comparisons for the following types of components:

1. .Net Assemblies
2. COM Components (*.exe, *.dll, *.ocx, *.tlb, *.olb)
3. COM+ Applications
4. Crystal Reports versions 8 - XI (*.rpt)
5. OLEDB/ODBC Compliant Database Schemas (Oracle, MySql, Access etc)
6. Windows Installer Databases (*.msi)
7. Windows Registry
8. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and 2005
9. Windows Folders and Files.

I think that the biggest milestone is the option to compare RPT files!, I have been waiting for this kind of method for too longs time (and I must admit that I started developing this kind of behavior which currently is useless)

Download a 7 day trial version and if you are using an older version of Crystal Reports than you need to download update

Acid2 test, Current status and IE 8

Acid2 employs certain features of HTML and, more prominently, CSS. The purpose of employing such features is to highlight the problems with browsers that do not display it correctly. The Acid2 test should render correctly on any browser that follows the W3C HTML and CSS 2.0 specifications. Any browser which does not correctly and completely support all of the features which Acid2 uses will not render the page correctly. Because Acid2 tests how web browsers deal with faulty code, the test is intentionally not written to W3C CSS standard specifications. Thus it will fail W3C CSS validation. This is expected and was the intention of its designers.

Current test result for IE 7:


Current test results for FireFox 2.0.0.11 :

Today we got the notification from the IE Blog that IE8 has finally passed the test!, does this mean war between the browsers?
When will we be able to get our hand on some Beta / CTP?

* I will upload a test for FireFox 3 beta soon