How can I mix and match arbitrary files & CVS versions in an edif f session

[SELLERS,JOHN K (HP-Cupertino,ex1)]

I am a newbee to emacs so I may be missing something, however...

But before you give me a stock answer, be aware I have tried all the stock
solutions over a fairly broad range.  So listen CAREFULLY so as not to miss
the point.

I have tried ediff a number of times and when I hit tab for completion I get
all the variations of ediff involving versions, files, ancestors, and
buffers.

This puzzles me because I ask why in the world do they have all these god
awful variations when it would be much more effective to have one ediff
variation in which one could pick an arbitrary file/buffer/version for each
of the components for A/B/&ancestor in order to do a 3 way diff?

So after using this facility about 50 times in the last few weeks I still
find myself frustrated when I want to compare (as I did this morning), a
file in directory A, a file in directory B, and use the most recent CVS
version of said file as an ancestor.

After multiple attempts...NO CIGAR.

It seems that none of the ediff versions ever thought of this and they seem
to be hard wired into either version or file choices without the possibility
of enterchanging between the two.

It is not as if I am doing some obscure add-ball case at all.  In fact, it
is perfectly reasonable to want to use the most recent ancestor to a couple
files that are floating around not yet committed to CVS.

So maybe again...I am missing something, but why isn't some way to open a
buffer on an arbitrary CVS version right up front instead of hard wired into
ediff?

again, am I missing something?  And regardless as to whether or not I am,
what is the answer to my quest?

Thanks,

Please reply at john_k_sellers@hp.com since I don't currently access news
outside the firewall.

Thanks, John Sellers