Roger Binns
2003-09-22 08:21:19 UTC
The first phase of using protocol descriptions rather than handling
stuff byte by byte now has the infrastructure in place.
Do an update (with -d to pick up the new examples directory).
Then run analyser examples/vx4400phonebookentry.txt
and you will see it in action.
This is the bigger picture:
- All protocol should be described at a higher level. For an
example see p_lgvx4400.p
- Reading and writing data should be done by manipulating one of
these. You can easily access members. For example with the
one description in there:
stuff.serial1=3
The class handles all marshalling and sanity checking of data.
- When sending stuff to the data log, you also supply a class
or an object that read the buffer. For example:
entry=p_lgvx4400.readphoneentryresponse()
entry.readfrombuffer(prototypes.buffer(rawbytes))
self.logdata("Read entry", res, entry)
- The datalog inserts a special line with the class name
For example:
9:34:58.312 LG-VX4400: Read entry Data - 529 bytes
<#! p_lgvx4400.readphoneentryresponse !#>
00000000 ff 13 4c 00 ea 00 00 00 02 02 ea 00 00 00 25 00 ..L...........%.
- In the protocol log pane, you can press Ctrl-Alt-P and it
will bring up the protocol analyser on what you highlighted
(or all of it if nothing was highlighted)
- You can also save protocol information to a file and run
the analyser stand alone. For the truly lazy (like me :-)
it will look in the clipboard if you don't give it a filename.
The point behind all this:
- Make protocol decoding and encoding more formal, and easier
to see and very easy to develop
- Very easy to get data from users and run the analyser on it
- Easy to play 'what-if' on the data
These are the next steps:
- Make com_lgvx4400.py use descriptions for all protocol
- Strip file down into seperate ones. For example a generic
"brew" file, and an "lg phonebook one". The individual
phone classes will then multipily inherit from whatever
components they use.
- Replace the phonebook grid widget with a text widget.
The raw phonebook dictionary will just be dumped in there
and will be easy to edit.
- Integrate in Alan and Scott's work
- Start on new phonebook gui widget
- Start on import and export
- Start on synchronisation and merging
Some little projects in case anyone wants one:
- Move all gui code over to the wx namespace. This is needed
because the exception handling code now prints out local
variables and the import * approach leaves several
thousand local variables
- Add enhancements to the analyser. Add a menu bar. Allow
the contents to be refreshed from the clipboard. Allow
multiple entries to be saved out as a plain text file.
- Add protocol samples to the examples directory. My preference
is for longer sequences (eg initialising and grabbing all
phonebook entries). Since this is in public CVS you will need
to wipe your phonebook and only have dummy entries. (I use
the backup/restore stuff for this :-)
As protocol descriptions get added, the examples can be modified
with the classnames.
- Start writing protocol descriptions. Note that it may change
slightly over the next few days as I discover issues.
Roger
stuff byte by byte now has the infrastructure in place.
Do an update (with -d to pick up the new examples directory).
Then run analyser examples/vx4400phonebookentry.txt
and you will see it in action.
This is the bigger picture:
- All protocol should be described at a higher level. For an
example see p_lgvx4400.p
- Reading and writing data should be done by manipulating one of
these. You can easily access members. For example with the
one description in there:
stuff.serial1=3
The class handles all marshalling and sanity checking of data.
- When sending stuff to the data log, you also supply a class
or an object that read the buffer. For example:
entry=p_lgvx4400.readphoneentryresponse()
entry.readfrombuffer(prototypes.buffer(rawbytes))
self.logdata("Read entry", res, entry)
- The datalog inserts a special line with the class name
For example:
9:34:58.312 LG-VX4400: Read entry Data - 529 bytes
<#! p_lgvx4400.readphoneentryresponse !#>
00000000 ff 13 4c 00 ea 00 00 00 02 02 ea 00 00 00 25 00 ..L...........%.
- In the protocol log pane, you can press Ctrl-Alt-P and it
will bring up the protocol analyser on what you highlighted
(or all of it if nothing was highlighted)
- You can also save protocol information to a file and run
the analyser stand alone. For the truly lazy (like me :-)
it will look in the clipboard if you don't give it a filename.
The point behind all this:
- Make protocol decoding and encoding more formal, and easier
to see and very easy to develop
- Very easy to get data from users and run the analyser on it
- Easy to play 'what-if' on the data
These are the next steps:
- Make com_lgvx4400.py use descriptions for all protocol
- Strip file down into seperate ones. For example a generic
"brew" file, and an "lg phonebook one". The individual
phone classes will then multipily inherit from whatever
components they use.
- Replace the phonebook grid widget with a text widget.
The raw phonebook dictionary will just be dumped in there
and will be easy to edit.
- Integrate in Alan and Scott's work
- Start on new phonebook gui widget
- Start on import and export
- Start on synchronisation and merging
Some little projects in case anyone wants one:
- Move all gui code over to the wx namespace. This is needed
because the exception handling code now prints out local
variables and the import * approach leaves several
thousand local variables
- Add enhancements to the analyser. Add a menu bar. Allow
the contents to be refreshed from the clipboard. Allow
multiple entries to be saved out as a plain text file.
- Add protocol samples to the examples directory. My preference
is for longer sequences (eg initialising and grabbing all
phonebook entries). Since this is in public CVS you will need
to wipe your phonebook and only have dummy entries. (I use
the backup/restore stuff for this :-)
As protocol descriptions get added, the examples can be modified
with the classnames.
- Start writing protocol descriptions. Note that it may change
slightly over the next few days as I discover issues.
Roger