Wireshark · Wireshark-dev: [Wireshark-dev] Expert Infos are a bit "more official" now!

[Ulf Lamping <ulf.lamping@xxxxxx>]

Hi List!

I think the Expert Info feature that I've added a while ago should be 
used more widely :-)


In the last days I've added the "Expert Info" feature to the User's 
Guide, so users have a chance to know how to use it.

I've also changed the Wiki's ExpertInfo Developer page, it's more of a 
"How To add expert infos to a dissector" now - before it was a bit 
outdated  proposal / collecting ideas page.


As I'm using the EI for a quite a while now and I really find it 
invaluable to get a "quick overview" of that file. In the PROFINET 
dissectors for example, I've added "PI_UNDECODED" EI's at all places 
where the current dissection is incomplete or where stuff is marked 
"Reserved" in the specs. If I get a new capture file, I just open the EI 
composite to have a quick look if anything in the dissection is missing 
and needs to be implemented / checked. This is *much* faster than 
scanning the packets manually and already saved me a lot of time.


If you're interested what the "Expert Infos" are and how to use them in 
the GUI, please read the User's Guide section 
http://www.wireshark.org/docs/wsug_html_chunked/ChAdvExpert.html.

If you're interested how to add "Expert Infos" to your dissector code, 
please read the ExpertInfo Wiki page 
http://wiki.wireshark.org/Development/ExpertInfo.


I can only suggest other developers to add more expert infos to their 
dissectors, this will probably be very helpful for both developers and 
users ...

Regards, ULFL



P.S: Any suggestions about the User Guide and Wiki page text or the EI 
feature itself is welcome ...