Wireshark · Ethereal-dev: [Ethereal-dev] XML Usage

["Jim Duke" <jduke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I’m new to this list, and to ethereal – so if this has been discussed before – please accept my apologies.

 

In the DIS protocol there are an immense number of enumerations used.  The standard includes a 500 page book listing them all (no joke).  This enumeration standard is updated approximately quarterly.  From what I can see, the most common way to implement enumerations mappings in ethereal is to register those items using proto_register_field_array, and use proto_tree_add_item in a dissector.  The data passed in proto_register_field_array is typically static C structures.

 

My preference would be to declare the enumerations (and the field structure definitions) in XML and provide an XML parser that would register the field arrays during initialization from XML data files.

 

Before I go down that path, however, I’d like to get some kind of sanity check on my direction.  Does that seem like a good idea?  Is that in line with the direction that ethereal is headed?

 

Thanks,

 

Jim Duke