Ethereal-dev: RE: [ethereal-dev] Need IP address & port info

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From: Jeff Foster <jfoste@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 07:31:15 -0600

>> Yeah,  I just found that. I would feel stupid except for the fact that we
>> don't have any documentation on the data structures.
>
>Documentation always tends to lag code (and this isn't unique to free
>software projects).
>
>> I guess the bottom line is that the data structures available to
developers
>> should be documented
>
>Yes, we should probably have a "how to write a dissector" document above
>and beyond the "doc/proto_tree" document.
>
>> and have standard calls (macros) to access the data.
>
>What sort of macros are you calling for here, and how would those macros
>make things better?

I'm not saying we have to have macros.  It would be a layer of abstraction
to insulate the developer from the underlaying data structures i.e.

#define IP_SRC_ADDRESS	(pi.net_src)

If the data structure changes we could redefine the macro.

I agree with your comment about the "how to write a dissector" document.


Jeff Foster.
jfoste@xxxxxxxxxxxx