App for batch file comparisons

[seveej]

Hi there,

For some years, I've been assisting on a university advanced course, where (as one of the many assignments), students are required to submit a file, made using a specialist software.

Cheating has always been a risk with the course, but in previous years the number of submissions has always been limited (less than 50), leading to that I have been reasonably confident that I can spot cheaters (such as when they get the file from a friend, make minor changes, and submit it as their own) due to apparent similarities in the results.

Now, the number of submissions beats my ability to spot such cheaters with any reasonable level of confidence.

So what I would need is a "turnitin for binary files". I have some programs for -file-by-file comparisons, but what I would need is something which could analyse a whole folder and spot surprising levels of similarity. And it would need to be free/gratis, because I don't have a budget for this.

Any ideas?

RGDS,

 

[jwmci]

Hi there,

For some years, I've been assisting on a university advanced course, where (as one of the many assignments), students are required to submit a file, made using a specialist software.

Cheating has always been a risk with the course, but in previous years the number of submissions has always been limited (less than 50), leading to that I have been reasonably confident that I can spot cheaters (such as when they get the file from a friend, make minor changes, and submit it as their own) due to apparent similarities in the results.

Now, the number of submissions beats my ability to spot such cheaters with any reasonable level of confidence.

So what I would need is a "turnitin for binary files". I have some programs for -file-by-file comparisons, but what I would need is something which could analyse a whole folder and spot surprising levels of similarity. And it would need to be free/gratis, because I don't have a budget for this.

Any ideas?

RGDS,

[doublepost=1520438486][/doublepost]Check out DiffMerge
[doublepost=1520438525][/doublepost]Check out DiffMerge

 

[seveej]

Check out DiffMerge

Thanks. Diffmerge is a nice app, but does not fit the bill based on two crucial deficiencies:
- Diffmerge is for text files (like source code) and does not really work for binary files
- Diffmerge compares files one-against-one (If you would use diff merge to study 100 submissions, you'd have to do roughly 10 000 comparisons)

RGDS,

 

[hobowankenobi]

This may be very hard to come by, depending on the type of file.

You said that it is specialist software....seems like any application would have to be written to compatible with the files to be compared. Most tools are for something specific (MS Word, Excel, text, images, etc.).

If you don't find something, would it be possible to export or convert the files or content to something more standard to analyze?

UPDATE:

Sorry, missed the bit about binary. No idea if you can automate or batch compare, but two options:

Hex Fiend
ECMerge (commercial)