Wireshark · Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] [PATCH] New menu items to copy packet data

["Douglas Pratley" <Douglas.pratley@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: wireshark-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:wireshark-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ulf Lamping
> Sent: 28 January 2007 04:40
> To: wireshark-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [Wireshark-dev] [PATCH] New menu items to copy 
> packet data
> 
> Nice work!

Thanks

> 
> As usual some GUI nitpicking from me ;-)
> 

You warned me before I started!

Hopefully my documentation patch will be committed soon, which might
make life a little easier (my first attempt was mangled by Outlook).

> So a new layout proposal of the corresponding menu items:
> 
> 1.) Packet List / Copy item:
> Summary (Text)
> Summary (CSV)
> ------------------
> Bytes (Offset  Hex  Text)
> Bytes (Offset  Hex)
> Bytes (Printable Text Only)
> ------------------
> Bytes (Hex Stream)
> Bytes (Binary Stream)
> 

I like this.

> 2.) Packet Details / Copy item (only one Copy item in this menu):
> Description
> ------------------
> Bytes (Offset  Hex  Text)
> Bytes (Offset  Hex)
> Bytes (Printable Text Only)
> ------------------
> Bytes (Hex Stream)
> Bytes (Binary Stream)

I agree that it would be good to combine the Copy / Copy Selected Bytes
menu items. I didn't for the first cut as I didn't want to interfere
with existing functionality.

Is "Description" the right phrase? I find it vague, but can't think of
anything better.

These items do something different to the ones from Menu (1); they copy
only the selected bytes. That is why they are "inconsistent" at the
moment. I agree that it is ugly to have them different, but is the
context of having a row within a packet enough to make it intuitive on
its own?

> 
> 3.) Packet Bytes / Copy item:
> The usability of this menu is completely odd, as you select 
> things you don't want.
> With the new Details menu the dialog menu is completely 
> obsolete - after some cleanup. Namely moving the "Export 
> Selected Packet Bytes" item to Packet Details menu (shouldn't 
> be too difficult?!?). We might also want to remove this 
> export feature completely, as I guess that the "Copy" 
> mechanism is what users really need ...

Again, I was reluctant to change existing functionality; I think that we
should either drop the Copy and move the Export as you suggest, or else
duplicate the same Copy and Export functionality across both pop-ups
(either should be easy).

The question is, is there anybody out there who is going to be upset if
we remove this functionality (or more accurately, move it and rename
it). I'd value a third opinion!

> 
> BTW: Is the "Printable Text" a good idea? Wouldn't the "common" 
> replacement of unprintable chars by dots be more common / 
> helpful? Or is there even a need for both?
> 

Don't know - quite possibly both -  I actually think we could probably
do with more advanced functionality that copes with unicode text (UTF-8
and UTF-16) as well. Steve F suggested being able to decode Base64 would
be useful. I hope that this patch will give a better baseline for all of
that if anyone gets the time to do it.

I'm tempted to leave it for a few days to let my documentation patch
work its way through and to let others comment (they've been quiet so
far); if they stay quiet I'll then implement your suggestions.

Cheers

Doug



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