Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] Generic dissector generator

From: Gerald Combs <gerald@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2006 07:50:45 -0800

Marcelo Jedi wrote:
> Hi everybody,
> 
> After I learned how to write simple dissectors (without conversation
> or any advanced feature) I started to look for some dissector
> generators. I tested idl2wrs, asn2wrs and Pidl. They work fine, but
> generate code related to specific protocols, not for a generic one.
> 
> I think ASN.1 language would be great for building generic dissectors,
> I mean, dissectors that do not use BER / PER encoding  but a kind of
> raw enconding, suitable for describing generic protocols.
> 
> I would like to know if there is any project in this direction or if
> there is any framework for automatic dissector generation in progress.
> My internet search did not bring me any good result.

You might take a look at NetPDL (http://www.nbee.org/Docs/NetPDL/), a
generalized protocol markup language.  A "netpdl2wrs" dissector
generator would be pretty useful, IMHO.