Re: Enable extcap by default or not

[Graham Bloice <graham.bloice () trihedral com>]

On 9 September 2016 at 06:42, Roland Knall <rknall () gmail com> wrote:

> Hello List
>
> There is currently a discussion going on in https://code.wireshark.org/
> review/#/c/17498 in regard to enabling extcap features by default or not.
>
> There are basically two sides to the argument:
>
> Cons - extcap interfaces are advanced features, which will not be used by
> a majority of users. As more and more of those interfaces emerge, it
> clutters up the list. Therefore disabling them by default and enabling them
> when needed is ok.
>
> Pros - There are users out there, who use Wireshark solely together with
> extcap interfaces. Lots of those users are not very familiar with Wireshark
> in general. extcap was intended to bring capture device support to
> Wireshark where otherwise it would not be present or very complicated to do
> so. For those users to enable the support before using it seems like an
> unnecessary hassle.
>
> I just wanted to get the meaning of the list, on how we should proceed
> here, and if three are other arguments for or against enabling extcap by
> default.
>
> To clarify, I am a Pro guy as I fear 3rd party users will not understand
> this and this will lead to support cases which will generate the opinion
> "Wireshark is overly complicated, let's use something else".
I vote for disable by default, I feel that the extcap interfaces are
superfluous and confusing to most of the users I support as they are for
"niche" purposes.

I don't follow the argument that a user actually needing an extcap
interface for their "niche" purpose will find enabling it at all
difficult.  If this is felt to be an issue, why not add a top-level menu
for extcaps to make their control easier?

-- 
Graham Bloice

___________________________________________________________________________
Sent via:    Wireshark-dev mailing list <wireshark-dev () wireshark org>
Archives:    https://www.wireshark.org/lists/wireshark-dev
Unsubscribe: https://wireshark.org/mailman/options/wireshark-dev
             mailto:wireshark-dev-request () wireshark org?subject=unsubscribe