this post was submitted on 04 Feb 2025
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The most obvious option: highlight what changed, the whole string. If you changed the string from interpolated to non-interpolated, the meaning of the whole string changed; it is no longer a method to concatenate variables, it has become a literal string.
Same for the example of single to double quotes. In some languages, double quotes are only used in specific contexts, so its use changes the meaning of the code. The post seems to dismiss this fact too easily.
The post chooses to use Python, where single and double quotes are equivalent and are not a semantic change. In other languages that might be, but that's not the point of the article. A semantic diff is language dependent.
Just because they are equivalent for the labguage does not mean they are interchangeable. I may choose to use single or double quotes in specific cases and need that change to be visible, even if the language rules say it is indifferent.
Moreover, my point was about how they phrase it. It seems they dismiss what the code means to developer by mentioning "content" and discarding "the way the string is written".
Then a semantic diff is not for you, just use the old method.