[Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> Therefore my question / suggestion is if new protocols
> can be added without recompiling?

Yes, you could build it as a plug-in dissector.  You'd have to compile
the dissector module, and link it into a shareable object
(".so"/".dll"/etc.), but you wouldn't have to recompile Ethereal itself.

> Say, there could be some protocol definition files
> that Ethereal reads in: This way new protocols could
> be added and changed within much less time and
> with a minimum effort.

Yes, some protocols could probably be dissected with a generic engine
that takes a description file (that's how Analyzer:

	http://netgroup-serv.polito.it/analyzer/

works), although there are also protocols where I suspect enough
special-purpose processing is done that the generic engine wouldn't be
sufficient.

> Are there any plans for such a feature in the near future?
> Does it exist, and I didn't notice?

There aren't any plans for such an engine currently.