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Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] UI design history?

From: Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2013 14:12:51 -0800
On Nov 3, 2013, at 12:31 PM, Evan Huus <eapache@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I remember reading (on this list, I think) an explanation that the UI
> of pretty much all modern sniffers is derived from the first such
> program which was originally for DOS-era systems. Unfortunately, I
> have been unable to find the original message or any references to
> such a program. Wikipedia contains a tantalizing reference to Network
> General's "Sniffer" program, but any real details seem to have been
> lost in the mists of time.
> 
> If anybody has links or personal knowledge they'd be willing to share
> I would much appreciate it.

Links - I *wish* I had a link to, for example, "Expert Sniffer® Network Analyzer Operations, Release 5.50", but I downloaded it ages ago, and haven't found a copy online recently.

A discussion of the display starts on page 7-25; page 7-27 shows an example of the display (PDF follows):

Attachment: PastedGraphic-1.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document


Presumably you can have one set of panes (wider) as well.

Many sniffers tend to have that three-pane view of summary/detail/hex-and-ASCII dump.