If you want to "diff" large files or binary files, and you don't care
whether it is compatible with Unix diff, you might be interested in
xdelta.

pkgsrc/devel/xdelta
http://scam.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/~jmacd/xdelta.html

Ben

> > Why are we using the braindead GNU diff?  Can't we get one that acutally
> > works?
> 
> If you can find one that's less brain-dead I for one would be very
> happy!  Unfortunately GNU Diffutils are by and far the most complete and
> most usable freely available implementation of UNIX Diff that I know of.