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There are some tools that can separate actual code changes from reformatting changes. I am working on https://semanticdiff.com, a VS Code Extension / GitHub App that can help you with this. There is also difftastic if you prefer a CLI based solution. It supports more languages but can detect fewer types of reformatting changes.

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I like this idea of advancing beyond line-based diffs into something more meaningful. If someone renames a variable/type/module/whatever which changes X lines of code across Y files, I really don't care to see all of that, for what I'm concerned with that's a single diff.

(Assuming the code is in a language with a good type system and without reflection, I'm confident in automatic refactors and don't need to spend time on them in code review)

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