weird diff output?

[Jacob Keller <jacob.keller@gmail.com>]

On Mon, Mar 28, 2016 at 4:28 PM, Stefan Beller <sbeller@google.com> wrote:
>  cat > expect <<EOF
> +Entering '../nested1'
> +Entering '../nested1/nested2'
> +Entering '../nested1/nested2/nested3'
> +Entering '../nested1/nested2/nested3/submodule'
> +Entering '../sub1'
> +Entering '../sub2'
> +Entering '../sub3'
> +EOF
> +
> +test_expect_failure 'test messages from "foreach --recursive" from subdirectory' '
> +       (
> +               cd clone2 &&
> +               mkdir untracked &&
> +               cd untracked &&
> +               git submodule foreach --recursive >../../actual
> +       ) &&
> +       test_i18ncmp expect actual
> +'
> +
> +cat > expect <<EOF
>  nested1-nested1
>  nested2-nested2
>  nested3-nested3

Complete tangent here. The diff above looks like

<old-line>
+
+
+
+
+<old-line>

is it possible to get diff output that would look more like

+<old-line>
+
+
+
+
+
<old-line>

instead? This is one of those huge readability issues with diff
formatting that seems like both are completely correct, but the second
way is much easier in general to read what was added.

I don't understand why diff algorithms result in the former instead of
the latter, and am curious if anyone knows whether this has ever been
thought about or solved by someone.

I've tried using various diffing algorithms (histogram, etc) and they
always produce the same result above, and never what I would prefer.

Regards,
Jake