Re: Should the "export as text" item be in an "Export Human-readable..." item in the File menu?

[<kcullimo () runbox com>]

----- Start Original Message -----
Sent: Sat, 19 May 2012 16:33:07 -0700
From: Guy Harris <guy () alum mit edu>
To: Community support list for Wireshark <wireshark-users () wireshark org>
Subject: Re: [Wireshark-users] Should the "export as text" item be in an
        "Export Human-readable..." item in the File menu?

> On Apr 9, 2012, at 8:31 AM, Jaap Keuter wrote:
>
> > On 04/07/2012 06:05 AM, Guy Harris wrote:
> > > The mistake that caused this question to be asked:
> > >
> > >    http://ask.wireshark.org/questions/10000/how-to-get-the-txt-file-back-to-wireshark
> > >
> > > might be due to people thinking that the result of an "Export" operation is something that contains the raw data 
> > > from the packets and thus can be read into Wireshark.  (The question itself appears to have hoped that, even if it 
> > > couldn't be read into Wireshark, it still contained the raw data, which, in this case, it didn't.)
> > >
> > > Perhaps we should put the Export menu items for "as text" and "as PostScript" under a top-level menu item that 
> > > more clearly indicates that the result of the operation will not be readable by Wireshark and can't necessarily 
> > > even be converted into something readable by Wireshark?
> > >
> > > The same applies for the "export as CSV" and "export as XML" operations; those aren't easily human-readable, but 
> > > they're written in a form intended for programs *NOT* interested in the raw packet data (and not equipped to parse 
> > > raw packet data) to process.
> >
> > I can see the "Export / Import complementary" line of thinking (maybe I shouldn't have  created the Import...). 
> > Anyways, this cannot end up in yet another top level menu, it's just not that sort of thing, it is a "File" 
> > operation.
>
> Sorry, I didn't make it clear - by "top-level menu item" in
>
> > Perhaps we should put the Export menu items for "as text" and "as PostScript" under a top-level menu item
>
> I meant a menu item under the File menu.
>
> In any case, I've thought about it a bit more, and think it might make sense to have, in the File menu:
>
>       Export Packet Dissections
>               Text...
>               PostScript...
>               CSV...
>               PSML...
>               PDML...
>       Export SSL Session Keys...
>       Export Objects
>               HTTP...
>               DICOM...
>               SMB...
>
> rather than just "Export" as a top-level menu item - i.e., replace the "Export" top-level menu item with the three 
> items that are currently underneath it, and give the Export->File item a name that indicates that what it exports is 
> the result of dissection.
>
> They all "export" in the sense that they write out something other than the raw packet data, but they're all *very* 
> different operations (the first group writes out, in non-capture-file formats, the result of packet dissection, 
> whether it's the summary, details, or both, possibly with the raw data dumped in hex/ASCII format for text and 
> PostScript; the second group writes out session keys from the capture; the third group writes out objects transferred 
> over the wire by various protocols).
>
> The items under "Export Packet Dissections" would have longer descriptions similar to what they have now (I'm too 
> lazy to type those in).

Would classifying the asymmetric export (ones that lack a corresponding "import" action) formats as "reports" help 
clear up the original ambiguity/misunderstanding? It seems that most of the gui-based network tools I'm forced to 
periodically interact with rely upon that term with at least some success.
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