Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> > Attached is a quick patch to use the blurb (if available) for in
> > display filter help. I swapped the order of the columns make the
> > display more readable (some of the blurbs are rather long).
>
> Unfortunately, that means that the blurb is all the way on the right, so
> you see the field type before you see the field description; I find the
> type less useful than the description, so swapping the order actually
> makes it less readable for me.
OK. I can do one of three things with this information
1) nothing (maintain the status quo)
2) argue that my formatting really is better
3) submit a patch keeping the columns in their original order.
2 seems like a waste of effort. 1 and 3 are both trivial. If people
feel that (as indicated by the comment in the current source) that it
makes sense to display the blub if available then I'll redo the patch
(keeping the original column order). Otherwise I will leave this
alone.
> > Probably
> > the right thing to do is actually use a table or tree widget. An
> > expandable tree would be nice so that by default there would just be
> > the relatively short list of protocols. I suppose with the tree you
> > could combine "Protocols" and "Display Filters" into a single tab.
>
> Note that there's *already* a window that uses a tree widget to display
> all filterable fields...
>
> ...the window that pops up if you click the "Add Expression..." button
> in the window you use to construct a display filter.
I'm confused as the point you are trying to make. Does the existence
of a window elsewhere require that the help screens have a different
format? I assume that people go to help for different reasons.
> In practice, I never use the "Help" window; if I'm constructing a
> display filter, and can't remember which of the 4,607 (no, I'm not
> kidding - try running "ethereal -G | wc -l" on UNIX, or on Windows if
> you have Cygwin or some other source of "wc") filterable fields I want,
> I just click the "Filter:" button to pop up the display filter (or
> search filter, or read filter, or...) window, and then click "Add
> Expression...". (That also lets you, for enumerated fields, select the
> value to be checked by name, rather than by numerical value.)
Speaking of enumerated fields. Is there a good reason they are only
displayed when a comparative operator is selected. IMO it would be
nice if they were visible all the time.
> Perhaps the code to use the blurb or name could be put there; see
> "dfilter_expr_dlg.c".
I'll play with this more later.
--
-Andrew Feren
Cetacean Networks, Inc.
Portsmouth, NH
