Wireshark · Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] What about a universal XML parsing dissector

[Gerald Combs <gerald@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John R. wrote:

> NetPDL or things like it are the way to do this. However, it is not
> realistic to think that you will never need to have hooks in the XML
> descriptors for custom code. For example, say Protocol X uses some
> funny encoding for a field that no one else uses (beyond just shifts
> and ORs of bits). Also the order in which decoding is done may be
> important. You can have one decode step at the beginning followed by a
> relatively normal packet disassembly. Sequence, iteration, algorithms,
> etc. are more naturally handled in code than XML document (that didn't
> stop the abomination that is XSLT though ;-)  ).

There's no reason we can't have a netpdl2wrs, which would generate a
dissector from NetPDL similar to the way asn2wrs currently works.
Asn2wrs allows for extensive customization using templates.

It would also be handy to have a NetPDL parser written in Lua, IMHO.