On Thu, 10 Dec 1998, Laurent Deniel wrote:
> Mike Hall wrote:
> >
> > Does anyone else think this is a good idea, or should we just put all the
> > protocols in ethereal in C. Don't get me wrong, I think all the major
> > protocols that other products support should be supported in ethereal with
> > c code, but this would be a feature no one else has.
> >
>
> Yes, I also think that this is a good idea. I already have some code
> that parses and converts some user protocols defined in a text file
> into pseudo filters and automatic decoding routines. But that code contains
> some proprietary parts and is not really 64 bits clean.
> This is why I had not included it in ethereal.
>
> But this is a good idea to allow non C programmers to decode
> higher-level or proprietary protocols (so not commonly used) without modifying
> ethereal code.
I agree that this would be a great feature to have, both for packet
decoding and for filters. Karpski uses this method to decode packet data.
It might make a good starting point, since the code is GPL.
Early on I briefly considered using a packet description file to
generate C code, which could then be compiled into the application. It
would have made my job a lot easier when I changed the column formatting
code in all of the packet-*.c files. :)
It doesn't seem like it would be difficult to carry this over into
wiretap's file handling code, either.
--
Gerald Combs gerald@xxxxxxxxxx (913) 327-5309
Long-haired freak Rocky Mountain Internet
