Source Diff approaches and tools; need to compare a prod and QA (sandbox) instance

[santi]

we have a couple of minor bugs/differences between production and sandbox instances which are proving extremely difficult to identify.  We do not want to do a complete refresh yet but instead compare the source between the two instances in hopes of finding the offending differnce (apex classes/formulas). 

I have used tools such as WinDif and VSS but wanted to know if there is something specific for salesforce and/or eclipse.  Also, I would like to know other professionals approaches on this subject as I am looking to improve my process and approach when doing instance comparing and debugging

Thank you,

DJB

[dkador]

Salesforce has no built-in or officially sanctioned diff tool.  Eclipse's built-in diff utilities work okay.  I like using Meld (if you're on Linux).  Otherwise ExamDiff is a good choice that I've used before.