Guy Harris wrote:
>
> > I haven't checked in the control-character
> > change for follow-tcp-stream yet; I'll put a similar fix in, but probably
> > with a user-controllable GUI button, since not everyone wants control
> > characters displayed as caret-character all the time. For example, I'd
> > like to be able to toggle back and forth to check to see if the caret
> > is really part of the tranmission or not.
>
> Part of the problem may be that the text display in the "Follow TCP
> Stream" window works only for, well, text-based protocols, and LPD isn't
> fully text-based.
>
> Perhaps what's needed, long term (once we arrange that TCP segments get
> handed in order, with duplicate data removed, to protocols that run atop
> TCP, which we ultimately want for other reasons as well), is a scheme
> wherein the text in the "Follow TCP Stream" window is generated by the
> dissector for the protocol running atop TCP; purely text-based protocols
> could just put the text there, but other protocols could add an
> interpretation of the non-text data. (Note that even HTTP isn't
> *purely* text - you might be downloading an image, for example.)
Yes, this is a very good idea, and it is useful to extend it even more.
`lpd' is context sensitive, the meaning of a control byte depends on
what has happend before, so it would be handy to have that history
available when producing the info text for the normal, maybe real time,
display. This would involve the notion of a session, like "Follow TCP Stream",
but then for all packets at the same time... [this starts to look like
a complete tcp/ip stack is needed in ethereal....], [and that may even
be useful when replaying network events or even build programable
behaviour to trigger strange events to provoke other devices and show
their sanity (or not)].
So, this is about two years work....., but keep this in mind when
extending ethereal to know more and more about all the network protocols.
-- Thanks,
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Matthijs Melchior +31 35 687 2962 Lucent Technologies
mmelchior@xxxxxxxxxx http://www.lucent.com/ Hilversum, Netherlands
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