Wireshark · Ethereal-dev: Re: Display extension, ideas (was RE: [Ethereal-dev] io-stat pretty picture for website)

["Guy Harris" <gharris@xxxxxxxxx>]

Biot Olivier said:
> This discussion leads to the following proposal for enhancement: what if
> we generate a flexible way of presenting graphical analysis of protocol
> data, a thing like the filter logic already built into Ethereal? We
> could easily save   those analysis displays (as we save e.g., color
> filters), and when presenting them give the window the appropriate name.

I.e, have a tap that interprets arithmetic expressions constructed using
field names, and lets you draw graphs (or show tables) based on that?

That sounds like a reasonable idea.

> This way, we could easily add new graphical analysis "filters" without
> having to recompile the code. Unless a "plugin" approach is followed
> (expression calculation must not be interpreted then).

A "plugin" approach where?

Plugin dissectors wouldn't cause problems except for expressions using
fields from plugins *if* you don't have that plugin - but, in that case,
I'd just expect Ethereal to report the same error it'd report if you used
a completely bogus field name.

Plugin taps shouldn't make a difference to that "generic" tap.