[Bryan Henderson <hbryan@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Has anyone considered breaking ethereal into manageable pieces?  In a 
number of ways, it is uncommonly big:

- There are over a thousand files in the top level directory of the source 
tree (once built).  I don't think I've ever seen the top level directory 
of anything this big.

- The executable is 6 MB, which is fairly normal for a major system 
component, but unusual for a diagnostic tool.  I presume most of that is 
dissectors, and it's worth noting that any given instance of ethereal is 
unlikely to appreciate the vast majority of those.  And to add or modify a 
dissector, you have to build and haul around that whole lump.

- The man page (for ethereal and tethereal) is 60,000 lines.  Virtually 
all of this is descriptions of fields.

I think people would find ethereal easier to work with on lots of 
different levels if 1) the source tree directory structure were deepened a 
little; 2) the executable loaded dissectors dynamically as needed; and 3) 
the filter descriptions were in a separate file, or even a whole tree.

I'm willing to work on doing this, but I thought it might have already 
been discussed and found undesirable.