Import of http://bugs.musicbrainz.org/ticket/791

When considering whether or not to merge a pair of albums, the list of things to check is fairly mechanical - i.e. it can mostly be written down as program code.

It would be useful to have some sort of "diff" tool which would compare two (or more?) albums, and summarise their similarities and differences.

Examples:

Same number of tracks; track names are all very similar; track lengths are similar (therefore, these albums are "the same").

Same number of tracks; track names are all very similar; track lengths are similar, except the last track is much longer on one album (therefore, that album probably includes a "hidden" track).

Same number of tracks; track names are all very similar, except the last track; track lengths are similar, except the last track (therefore, the last track of the albums is probably different).

and so on. That would solve a lot of the donkey work involved with checking merges.