Nmap Development mailing list archives
Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul
From: David Fifield <david () bamsoftware com>
Date: Tue, 27 May 2008 20:57:56 -0600
On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 05:43:44PM -0700, Fyodor wrote:
On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 01:30:34PM -0600, David Fifield wrote:On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 09:15:22PM +0200, Vladimir Mitrovic wrote: Neither. It means "all scans after 00:00 on January 9." Fuzziness should only increase, never decrease, the range of dates searched. Similarly before:~date would push the date forward in time a day. Again we have to make a decision. Does before:2008-01-10 mean, "before 00:00 on January 10" or "before 00:00 on January 11"? In other words, does "before" really mean "on or before"? My inclination is to choose the more expansize option, "on or before", just like "after" is "on or after". So for this example "before:~2008-01-10" means "all scans before 00:00 on January 12."Hi David. I think you have some great ideas related to search keywords. But I'm not sure I understand the value of ~ "fuzzyness". It sounds like after:2008-01-10 already includes anything on that day or later in your plan. If I want to add a day to be on the safe side or because I'm not sure of semantics, wouldn't specifying after:2008-01-9 be just as easy and more intutive than after:~2008-01-10? And if I want 3 extra buffer days, why would after:~~2008-01-10 be any simpler than after:2008-01-07? Who is going to remember a special syntax for adding an extra day or three, when they can just add or subtract the days from the date given directly?
I admit that fuzziness is more useful with date:, where it is just a shorthand for a range of dates around a given date. It means "I don't remember exactly on what day this scan happened," or "I don't remember if the scan was before or after midnight, so give me both days." But you raise a good objection. I would remember how to use the fuzziness feature because I thought of it. Anyone else who doesn't do a lot of searches isn't going to know about it, just as they aren't going to know exactly what before: and after: mean. Anyone doing a lot of searches is going to get used to adding or subtracting a day when necessary and won't need the fuzziness. How about this: ditch fuzziness for before: and after:, and define them so that before: means "on or before" and after: means "on or after". Erring on the side of returning too many results suits me. Like you said in another message, I'm mainly interested in narrowing down the list of scans somewhat so I can go through them by hand. This is contrary to how dates work in Subversion, at least. If you want a log of all changes to the nmap repository on May 21 and 22, you have to say svn log -r {2008-05-21}:{2008-05-23} not the (to me) more natural "{2008-05-21}:{2008-05-22}", because "2008-05-22" is interpreted as "00:00 on 2008-05-22, i.e., the end of day on 2008-05-21." David Fifield _______________________________________________ Sent through the nmap-dev mailing list http://cgi.insecure.org/mailman/listinfo/nmap-dev Archived at http://SecLists.Org
Current thread:
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul, (continued)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul Vladimir Mitrovic (May 23)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul David Fifield (May 23)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul eldraco (May 23)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul Vladimir Mitrovic (May 24)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul Vladimir Mitrovic (May 26)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul David Fifield (May 27)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul Vladimir Mitrovic (May 27)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul Vladimir Mitrovic (May 27)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul David Fifield (May 27)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul Fyodor (May 27)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul David Fifield (May 27)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul Fyodor (May 28)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul eldraco (May 23)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul David Fifield (May 27)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul Vladimir Mitrovic (May 27)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul Fyodor (May 27)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul Vladimir Mitrovic (May 28)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul David Fifield (May 30)
- Re: [RFC] Zenmap search interface overhaul Vladimir Mitrovic (May 31)