[Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Jan 19, 2004 at 09:07:13AM +0100, Ulf Lamping wrote:
> The "View->Options" seems to be a bit overengineered then. 
> I would tend to leave it away, or is this really useful for someone?

I assume the ability to turn automatic scrolling in "Update list of
packets in real time" captures on or off while a capture is in progress
was useful for somebody; Laurent Deniel checked it in back in September
1999.

> If we really need this feature, this should be an option in the "capture
> in progress" dialog, not in the menu IMHO.

That might be a better place for it.

> >Name resolution takes place when the columns or dissection are being
> >generated.
> >
> >Edit->Preferences->Name resolution gives the default value.
> >
> >You can override it when reading in a file, from File->Open (which means
> >that when the columns are generated, name resolution is done).
> >
> >You can override it when starting a capture, from Capture->Start, which
> >affects what happens when the capture file is read in (when the capture
> >finishes, if you're not doing an "Update list of packets in real time"
> >capture, or during the capture, if you are doing an "Update list of
> >packets in real time" capture).
> 
> Ok, that's something I can understand, although it's not easy to get,
> without assistance ;-)

Actually, it's not a complete description, which argues that it's not
easy to get *with* assistance.

There is a preference setting for name resolution (prefs.name_resolve),
which you can edit with Edit->Preferences->Name. 

There is also a *current* setting (g_resolve_flags) for name resolution. 
If you edit the preference setting, that also sets the current setting. 
You can also change the current setting from File->Open, Capture->Start,
and View->Options; none of those change the preference setting.

Name resolution is controlled by the current setting.

If you click the "Save" button in Edit->Preferences, the preference
setting is saved.

The underlying issue here is that you might want preference settings and
current settings not only for name resolution, but other preferences as
well (protocol preferences, columns, etc.).  You might want to turn off
name resolution when reading in a particular preference file because
it's from another site and name resolution would time out when trying to
resolve an IP address in the capture, or you might want to change the
MTP3 standard preference from its default setting to the setting for a
particular capture file, or....  (You might even change a preference
multiple times while processing a single file.)

You wouldn't necessarily want all the changes you made for a particular
file to be saved when you save the preferences, so the idea of two
different set of name resolution flags should perhaps be extended to
cover many other preferences.  If we support that, we might also want to
automatically save the preferences when you close the Edit->Preferences
dialog, rather than requiring the user to click "Save".

We could arguably get rid of the File->Open and Capture->Start name
resolution settings, as you could set them from View->Options before
reading a file or starting a capture.  Those might have been added for
convenience; the original name resolution option was added to File->Open
in June 2000 by Gilbert Ramirez, and to Capture->Start in September 1999
by Laurent Deniel.

> >View->Options lets you change the setting *after* reading in a file. 
> >Unfortunately, it currently doesn't cause the columns to be regenerated
> >with addresses resolved, nor does it affect the dissection of the
> >currently selected packet.
> >
> 
> So we might simply throw it away?

We could, but ultimately we should perhaps make it regenerate the
columns, etc..

> Put it in the toolbar might be "impossible", if the user doesn't have the
> space for both toolbars in one line :-(

I guess the question there is whether the problem is with vertical or
horizontal space.  (I can't really address that issue very well as the
smallest display I have is on my 14" iBook, with 1024x768 - on that
machine, I'd only have to widen the display a little bit from the last
width I gave it to fit the filter box, and its buttons, in the main
toolbar.)