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Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] [GSoC] Packet Editor and Viewer

From: Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 13 Apr 2013 17:50:13 -0700
On Apr 12, 2013, at 11:34 PM, Edwin Abraham <edwin.abraham12@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I had gone through the GSoC project list and I wanted to start working on Packet Editor/Viewer. I also was thinking of working on the functionality of adding custom dissectors from the packet editor.

Why the packet editor?  Adding the ability to add...

> The embedded LUA, initially, can be used

...Lua dissectors via a UI (presumably you mean adding a mini-IDE for Lua Wireshark code) is arguably a separate feature, useful even *without* a packet editor, and probably not sharing much code with the packet editor.

> so that the only a reboot of wireshark is needed for the dissector to come into effect.

If a mini-IDE for Lua Wireshark code is added, it'd be ideal if you *didn't* have to restart Wireshark to use the new code.

> The Packet Editor/Viewer can exist on its own so that when selecting an individual packet from the capture file you can view the packet in a much more comfortable manner.

I'm not sure what you mean by "on its own".  If you double-click on a packet in the packet list, Wireshark pops up a separate window for that packet's summary line and details, so that already lets you view a packet "on its own".  Were you thinking of additional capabilities (other than, of course, editing) to that window?

> I would like to start going through the code. I have been using wireshark GIT for access to the source not the SVN. Should I go with the SVN/GIT repos or download a stable source bundle like 1.8.6 to start working on the idea?

SVN/GIT is *probably* the best choice, given that any GSoC developments won't end up in one of the stable releases, and building atop the code your code would be integrated with is probably better than building atop something from which the trunk may have diverged.