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Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] Feature: option to open windows as tabs

From: Peter Wu <peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 5 May 2018 19:04:38 +0200
Hi Michael,

On Sat, May 05, 2018 at 06:02:00PM +0200, Michał Łabędzki wrote:
> I have a nice feature: option to open windows as tabs. Please see
> review: https://code.wireshark.org/review/#/c/27363/
> 
> Peter asked me to start the discussion about that because there is a
> plan to have a dockable windows feature. I do not know more about
> "Dockable Windows" feature but as I understand there is no conflict
> because dockable windows will be done inside one tab introduced be me
> (I think my change is over it).

I could have misremembered it, but as far as I know the idea behind the
dockable window was to make it possible to move UI components such as
the byte view and packet details view into different windows, allowing
more flexible rearrangements with multiple monitors.

> This change is also the first step for Support Multiple Capture Files
> (like web browsers - one* tab is one capture file / packet list).
> 
> PS. By defaults, there is no any change in Wireshark behavior with my change.

And this (work to support for multiple capture files) is something why I
am excited about this patch set. As said in the review comments, there
are at least two issues (global dissector state and wmem_file_scope
memory) that might cause issues.

You suggested an approach like "sharkd" (multiple processes) which
sounds like a nice idea, but I am very curious how this will work out in
practice. In particular, how dissector results are shared with the UI.

Memory usage will probably suck due to exact copies of the process, but
it cannot be worse than the current situation where you have to start
multiple processes anyway to view multiple capture files.
-- 
Kind regards,
Peter Wu
https://lekensteyn.nl