Ethereal-dev: Re: [ethereal-dev] Proposing some ethereal projects ...

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From: Bert Driehuis <driehuis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 29 Jul 2000 16:25:23 +0200 (CEST)
On Sat, 29 Jul 2000, Richard Sharpe wrote:

> having had a look at Ethereal in trying to document it, and that is not
> complete as yet ... but, I feel that we should perhaps set up some formal
> projects to tackle areas of Ethereal that are perhaps not quite done.

Yeah, we've noticed that you take an interest... Matter of fact, I
sometimes get this impression that you're taking caffeine intravenously
:-)

> These projects would have members, and would discuss what is to be done
> about various parts of Ethereal, report back, and then implement the
> proposed changes.

Good idea, but I think a lot Ethereal contributors are like me: you
scratch an itch, and living with minor inconveniences is not much of a
problem, not enough of an itch. After all, fixing it entails figuring
out what needs to be done first, and by that time I always have enough
of a workaround to be bothered no longer. Besides, I make a lousy UI
designer :-)

> 1. GUI cleanup. This project would attempt to make those elements of
> the GUI that are hard to use, or non-intuitive, easier and more
> intuitive to use, if that is possible.

Well, I know what you're getting at here. It took me quite some time to
realize that Follow TCP Stream was just setting a display filter that I
could clear with the button in the lower regions of the window. With my
end-user hat on, I was looking to un-select the checkmark in the menu
(to find there is none), then proceeded to check the Edit Filters menu.
I didn't work it out until recently and just restarted Ethereal after
following a stream.

That said, I consider this to be a minor issue. The biggest thing to me
is the two sets of filter languages: the libpcap syntax for the capture,
and the display filters for the rest (and that would be a biggy, if at
all possible, to reconcile).

Cheers,

				-- Bert

Bert Driehuis -- driehuis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx -- +31-20-3116119
If the only tool you've got is an axe, every problem looks like fun!