Wireshark-dev: [Wireshark-dev] Expert Infos are a bit "more official" now!

From: Ulf Lamping <ulf.lamping@xxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 00:30:13 +0200
Hi List!

I think the Expert Info feature that I've added a while ago should be used more widely :-)


In the last days I've added the "Expert Info" feature to the User's Guide, so users have a chance to know how to use it.

I've also changed the Wiki's ExpertInfo Developer page, it's more of a "How To add expert infos to a dissector" now - before it was a bit outdated proposal / collecting ideas page.


As I'm using the EI for a quite a while now and I really find it invaluable to get a "quick overview" of that file. In the PROFINET dissectors for example, I've added "PI_UNDECODED" EI's at all places where the current dissection is incomplete or where stuff is marked "Reserved" in the specs. If I get a new capture file, I just open the EI composite to have a quick look if anything in the dissection is missing and needs to be implemented / checked. This is *much* faster than scanning the packets manually and already saved me a lot of time.


If you're interested what the "Expert Infos" are and how to use them in the GUI, please read the User's Guide section http://www.wireshark.org/docs/wsug_html_chunked/ChAdvExpert.html.

If you're interested how to add "Expert Infos" to your dissector code, please read the ExpertInfo Wiki page http://wiki.wireshark.org/Development/ExpertInfo.


I can only suggest other developers to add more expert infos to their dissectors, this will probably be very helpful for both developers and users ...

Regards, ULFL



P.S: Any suggestions about the User Guide and Wiki page text or the EI feature itself is welcome ...