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Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] [PATCH] New menu items to copy packet data

From: Ulf Lamping <ulf.lamping@xxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2007 05:39:41 +0100
sfisher@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Log:
 From Douglas Pratley:
This is a patch adding items to the context menus for the packet list
 and packet details panes for copying packet data to the clipboard.
New menu item on packet list pane:
 Copy (sub menu) ->
         Summary (Text)          Copies fields displayed in the packet
 list, tab separated
         Summary (CSV)           Copies fields displayed in the packet
 list, comma separated
         Hex and Text            Copies data for the selected frame in
 hex-editor style (similar to Copy\All Information in packet bytes pane)
         Text Only               Copies data for the selected frame,
 dropping non-printable characters other than line breaks (similar to
 Copy\Text Only in packet bytes pane)
         Hex Columns             As Hex and Text but without text
         Hex Stream              Copies data for the selected frame as an
 unpunctuated list of hex values
         Binary Stream           Copies raw packet bytes to the clipboard
 as MIME type application/octet-stream
Nice work!

As usual some GUI nitpicking from me ;-)

Comparing the context menus (packet list, details, bytes), they have no common way they are named (especially in combination with the existing menu items), it's looking a bit weird now.

In addition, I had to try some things out before I get the actual meaning.

So a new layout proposal of the corresponding menu items:

1.) Packet List / Copy item:
Summary (Text)
Summary (CSV)
------------------
Bytes (Offset  Hex  Text)
Bytes (Offset  Hex)
Bytes (Printable Text Only)
------------------
Bytes (Hex Stream)
Bytes (Binary Stream)

2.) Packet Details / Copy item (only one Copy item in this menu):
Description
------------------
Bytes (Offset  Hex  Text)
Bytes (Offset  Hex)
Bytes (Printable Text Only)
------------------
Bytes (Hex Stream)
Bytes (Binary Stream)

3.) Packet Bytes / Copy item:
The usability of this menu is completely odd, as you select things you don't want.

With the new Details menu the dialog menu is completely obsolete - after some cleanup. Namely moving the "Export Selected Packet Bytes" item to Packet Details menu (shouldn't be too difficult?!?). We might also want to remove this export feature completely, as I guess that the "Copy" mechanism is what users really need ...


What do you think about all the name changes?

BTW: Is the "Printable Text" a good idea? Wouldn't the "common" replacement of unprintable chars by dots be more common / helpful? Or is there even a need for both?


Again, your work was already overdue in my eyes, thanks for doing it!

Regards, ULFL