Ethereal-dev: Re: [Ethereal-dev] Top Menu Item: rename "Display" to "View" and move one to the

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From: Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003 14:42:10 -0700
On Fri, Oct 17, 2003 at 01:36:48PM +0200, Ulf Lamping wrote:
> IMHO the current "Display->User Specified Decodes..." and
> "Tools->Decode As..." dialogs are a bit odd in a usability point of
> view.  It's not obvious, that this is a pair and where to find from one
> to the other.

That raises another issue.

"Decode As" isn't something to let you edit the full set of decodes -
unlike, for example, the "-d" flag in Tethereal.  It's something to let
you change the way the values of some fields in the currently-selected
packet can be decoded.

It might be useful to have something to let you view, and edit, *all*
the dissector tables, which would be like an editable version of the
current "User Specified Decodes".

It might also be useful to have something to change the way the values
of fields in the current packet can be decoded - *and* perhaps to also
say "decode a *conversation* or *circuit* containing this packet as a
particular protocol".  That'd be like the current "Decode As...".

"User Specified Decodes" might be under "Edit", and "Decode As..." might
be under "Tools".

We then might want to have a way to save the user-specified decodes. 
(This might let us get rid of some of the protocol "port number"
preferences.)