Add button to show raw file

[bombillazo]

First off, thanks for this extension, it is a must have for me and I appreciate the work.

Currently there is no way to turn off the diff viewer and edit the raw file. Usually extensions that allow you to view/preview files always give you a button to see the raw contents of the file:

I currently have no way to view the file in VS code since it will always show the diff viewer.

[caponetto]

Hi @bombillazo
The extension doesn't have a button for that because VS Code already allows it.
Right-click your file > "Open With ..." > "Text Editor".
Does it help?

[bombillazo]

Oh, ok, yes that helps, but it's kind of cumbersome and wasn't intuitive to me... I find it very convenient how the markdown preview works where they have a button to switch between source mode and preview mode.

[tanguydelignieresaccenture]

Hi @bombillazo The extension doesn't have a button for that because VS Code already allows it. Right-click your file > "Open With ..." > "Text Editor". Does it help?

That's not possible when in source control tab as "Open Changes" opens diff viewer and there is no way to tell VS Code to open "raw" diff.

In my opinion a proposal like the one made by @bombillazo is the way to go and until that it is quite unusable as we must always loop in a "disable extension > reload window > Open "raw/source" > enable extension" to be able to either have diff viewer/raw mode.

[jacekkopecky]

@tanguydelignieresaccenture You don't need to disable/re-enable the extension. Right-click on the tab brings 'Reopen Editor With...' where you can select Text Editor.
The command is also available in the command pallette - workbench.action.reopenWithEditor

[tanguydelignieresaccenture]

@jacekkopecky, I'm not talking about the "file" opening but the changes opening from the source control tab in VS Code, where there is no such option as "Reopen Changes With...".
As soon as I click or select "Open Changes", that is diff viewer that kicks in, without any possibility to revert to "raw" diff (without disabling the extension).

[jacekkopecky]

@tanguydelignieresaccenture ah yes, sorry, I hadn't read the whole issue. But open changes doesn't use the diff viewer from this extension, does it?

With the Diff Viewer (and my own extension to open git changes in Diff Viewer), it looks like this:

With the relatively new native VS Code command Git: View Changes, it looks like this:

Is that what you mean? The native diffs (much newer than this extension) indeed don't have a way to get to the diff.

Check out my Whole Diff extension here

[tanguydelignieresaccenture]

Here are the differents statuses on .patch file opening, having the diff viewer extension enabled.

In explorer view:

• Opening the file by clicking it - diff viewer open it:
  

• "Open With..." > "Text editor" - classic text editor open it:
  

In source control view:

• "Open Changes" or just clicking it - diff viewer open it:
  

So yes @jacekkopecky, opening changes on a .patch file (from the source control view), the diff viewer is used without possibility to use the classic VSCode "changes viewer" (or I didn't found it!), contrary to when extension is disabled/VSCode reloaded, of course:

[jacekkopecky]

Thank you @tanguydelignieresaccenture , now I understand the problem - you want to see a diff of a diff! Nice!

This might actually be a VS Code issue because while we can switch to text editor in a normal editor, here VS Code forces us to view the before and after state with the custom diff view, like it would for image files.

Below, I've changed the diff file so we see the before and after (rather than an "Empty diff file") state:

Do you have examples of other custom text editors that behave better?

[mbtools]

Can we get back to the original issue?

It would be very helpful to get a button in the toolbar or next to the "Viewed" checkbox to execute "Open With ..." > "Text Editor". 🙏