Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] Newbie to wireshark development,help !
From: "Bryan Miller" <millerb@xxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 10:11:03 -0600
> Jeff Morriss appears to have written:
> 
> RayFred Pip wrote:
> > Wireshark development team:
> >    I want to be a developer of *wireshark* project. But I got problems
> > mainly on how to get involved into it quickly.
> >    I have a wish for wireshark that I want to implement. That is to add 
> > a "content playback"  functionality(playback the captured bits as its  
> > original format so that human can read and understand them) for wireshark.
> 
> Hmm, usually Wireshark is used to interpret the bits to make them 
> human-readable but I'm not sure what you mean by "playback."
> 
> >    It is now easy job though.And I even don't know how to get into it 
> > as
> > quickly as possible beginning from scratch.
> > I have read the web pages on the official site and the Developer's Guide 
> > from which I got information of how wireshark works and how to set up a 
> > development environment for it ,BUT until now wireshark has become a big 
> > project and software that has too many C codes .Should I begin with 
> > reading codes and understand all the APIs and what anything else ...?
> >    Any good suggestions please ?
> 
> When I started Wireshark coding all I read was doc/README.developer--it 
> was enough to get started writing dissectors.  You "should" only need to 
> go digging into Wireshark's code and header files if you're doing 
> bleeding-edge not-quite-documented-yet or not-done-before stuff.

I'm probably a little slower than most but I had to do a fair amount of
digging to understand all the data structures and methods.

You'll also have to dig a bit deeper if you rely upon extant dissectors upon
which you layer your work (RPC, DEC, SMB, etc).