Sexp-diff like mode for elisp source diffing

Question

diff-mode shows differences by lines. I'm looking for a mode that could show a diff knowing that the diffed files are elisp sources, so they are full of sexps and therefore more specialized diff highlight could be used.

Is there a mode to show a diff between two sexps or better between two files that are elisp sources?

Example of what I have in mind, instead of the usual:

- (unless foo bar baz)
+ (when (foo bar) baz)

structural diff:

(+when+-unless- +(+foo bar+)+ baz)

Answer 1

I find that the built-in ediff serves great for diffing sexps. As soon as you ignore whitespace, the changes in sexps become very clear.

(setq ediff-diff-options "-w --text")

A nice command to start with is ediff-regions-wordwise, which can be used to narrow the bounds of the stuff you diff.

If you want to diff two sexps very quickly in terms of keys pressed, in lispy-mode you can select the first sexp with xB and compare them with B from the second sexp.