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Wireshark-bugs: [Wireshark-bugs] [Bug 6103] Add 3GPP TS44.060 RLC/MAC control blocks management

Date: Tue, 11 Oct 2011 10:14:37 -0700 (PDT)
https://bugs.wireshark.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=6103

--- Comment #6 from Stephen Fisher <steve@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 2011-10-11 11:14:34 MDT ---
(In reply to comment #4)
> As the creator of the GSMTAP format specification, I find it somewhat
> unsettling that some people simply extend the definition to include new fields,
> and then submit such changes to wireshark, without running them by me.
> The official definition of the GSMTAP format is in the Osmocom project
> 'libosmocore' library.
> By submitting such changes to wireshark, and by wireshark having accepted them,
> we now have managed to have incompatible versions of GSMTAP.

The real cause is the people who are making changes to GSMTAP as Wireshark
simply analyzes what is out there already.  But I do agree that having
Wireshark support an extension may encourage its use.  For that reason, I'm not
opposed to having comments in the dissector's source code asking people to
defer to you before making changes to the protocol itself.

> I don't really understand why I haven't been copied on either the original
> proposal, nor any of the wireshark developers have asked me to acknowledge it.
> I may be tainted by my linux kernel developer experience, but in most projects
> it is common practise to contact the original author/contributor of a given
> sub-system and ask at least for his comments, if not approval.

The other To take an example that I'm familiar with outside of Wirshark, the
FreeBSD ports system: I'm the maintainer of the ansiprint port and yes, if
someone wanted to change that port, they would defer to me for approval first
because I'm responsible for keeping it compiling and updated.  In the case of
Wireshark, us core developers take over maintenance of everything and people
submit patches that help us do our work of maintaining Wireshark.  If, for
example, a core data structure in Wirshark changes, we core developers are the
ones responsible for updating all of the dissectors.

> This is not about my ego, but simply about the technical fact that we now have
> differnet incompatible GSMTAP formats :((

Understood.

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