On Tue, 30 Nov 2004, Donnie Hale wrote:
> My vision of a "perfect world" on this front would be Python bindings to a
> formalized, supported, and documented "Ethereal API Library". Absent the
> Python bindings, doing it from c/c++ is ok, too, but Ethereal as a library
> needs to be more accessible for those of us who don't have weeks of ramp-up
> time available to invest.
This idea has been tossed around for a long time. I recall starting on
something like that back in 2001 ...
My view was that Ethereal be split into two pieces:
1. A dissection library that returns a tree representing
the packet(s) handed to it. The library would have functions
to allow you to search a dissected packet for fields and values
and so forth.
2. The various front ends that display dissected packets.
> What are your thoughts on this? How feasible is this in the near-term? Can
> this be added to the wishlist?
I don't think this is feasible in the near term. There is too much display
handling (whether for a GUI or for terminal display) intertwined with the
packet dissection functions.
Perhaps it is something we should attempt for Ethereal V2.
Regards
-----
Richard Sharpe, rsharpe[at]richardsharpe.com, rsharpe[at]samba.org,
sharpe[at]ethereal.com, http://www.richardsharpe.com
