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Ethereal-dev: Re: [Ethereal-dev] make-register-dotc & make-tapreg-dotc

Note: This archive is from the project's previous web site, ethereal.com. This list is no longer active.

From: Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 19:14:36 -0700
On Sun, Jul 13, 2003 at 05:23:45PM -0400, Dave Shawley wrote:
> My overall goal is to reduce the dependency on the various UNIX command
> line utils (rm, sed, mv, etc.) and replace them with the Win32 equivalents
> or Perl where there is no Win32 equivalent.

Why Perl and not Python?  Python isn't a UNIX command-line utility in
the sense of something restricted to UNIX (or even something restricted
to UNIX or Windows-plus-Cygwin):

	http://www.python.org/2.2.3/

"Windows users should download the Windows installer, Python-2.2.3.exe,
run it and follow the friendly instructions on the screen to complete
the installation.  Windows users may also be interested in Mark
Hammond's win32all, a collection of Windows-specific extensions
including COM support and Pythonwin, an IDE built using Windows
components."

>I've been running into problems
> with other engineers where I work complaining about having the install
> Cygnus to build ethereal. I'll take a look at ncp2222.py. I could probably
> rewrite it in Perl as well.

Perhaps, but you should take a look at it before you endeavor to do so;
it's a 14,619-line Python script, and most of it consists of Python
statements that amount to describing the contents of various NCP
packets, which means that as bugs are fixed, new NCPs are dissected,
etc., that stuff changes, so if you don't submit your rewritten script,
you'll have to update it when the Python script changes, and if you *do*
submit it it's only going to be accepted as a patch if the people
maintaining it are willing to switch from Python to Perl.

> The one difference that I did see is that the Perl version is *alot* faster
> than the shell version for building register.c.

So is the Python version, which is why it was created, and why it's now
used on UNIX as well as Windows.

Is the Perl version faster than the *Python* version?  That's the
interesting question here, not whether it's faster than the *shell*
version.