[Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Nov 19, 2003, at 1:51 PM, Tony Scarola wrote:

> Okay... Is this (writing a dissector) something a "non programmer" can 
> do?

In the literal sense, no, because the act of writing a dissector is 
programming (writing C code).

However, if "non-programmer" just means "somebody whose job title 
doesn't say something such as 'programmer' or 'software engineer'", a 
"non-programmer" unafraid of writing C code might be able to write one.

We don't have any mechanisms to, for example, turn a higher-level 
description of packets into a dissector.

> And if so, are there any instructions available for writing a 
> dissector?

About all we have is

	1) various "README" files in the "doc" subdirectory of the Ethereal 
source

and

	2) source code to existing dissectors.