Expressions: supported new functions hasstring() and extractstring() and added the possibility to support other functions

Expressions: added the possibility to specify a ”0” size when the [startat:size] operator is used for variables, fields, packetbuffer, etc.

Expressions: matching can be done through regular expressions (see hasstring() and extractstring() functions)

Expressions: new notation for hexadecimal strings (the ”#” character is no longer a marker)

Switch element supports a case-sensitive / case insensitive match (only for string-based matches)

<protoref> has been renamed in <nextproto>

<nextproto> and <nextproto-candidate> supports only expressions (the attribute name is no longer used)

<text> element (within the Visualization Extension) has a new optional attribute (when)

value hideval of attribute showtype (the <showtemplate> element) is no longer supported

Fields can be nested (i.e. the <field> element can contain other <field> elements)

Fields can be defined through regular expressions (the tokenended and tokenwrapped field types)

<assign> element is no longer supported and it has been replaced by <assign-variable>, <assign-lookuptable> and <update-lookuptable>.

Code has been moved to the new <execute-code> section. This section allows executing custom code at initialization time, before and after processing the protocol headers. Finally, the <verify> section contains some code that can be used to verify the correctness of that protocol.

Variables must be declared expressly in the <execute-code> section.

Support for lookup tables has been introduced.

Variables are typed; four data types have been defined.

Added support for float and double fields in visualization extension.

The new <format> element has been defined for better organization of the NetPDL file

No visualization attributes (apart from ”showtemplate” and ”showsumtemplate”) are inserted in the definition of NetPDL fields, for better separation between the protocol definition and the visualization extensions

Visualization primitives are mostly defined within the new <visualization> section of the NetPDL file

Field have been inglobated within the same <field> element, which supports a type qualifier for defining the field type (fixed length, variable length, etc)

Field <masked> has been deleted; now bit fields are standard fields; <field type=“bit” …> has been introduced

A new type of field has been introduced: the tokenwrapped

Some element (such as <loop>, <if>, <presentif>) now have a new attribute for the required expression

Alement <if> now must have the new child elements <if-true> and <if-false>

Some of the elements allowed in the <showdtl> and <showsumtemplate> elements changed their name

<block> elements are now supported also within the field list, although they can still be included through the <includeblk> element

<loop> element changed its syntax (the <looptype> child element is no longer defined)

element <protoref> does not longer have any expression; instead, it is used inside <if> and <switch> - <case> elements

Elements <startproto> and <defaultproto> have been deleted; they have been replaced by standard protocols with a predefined name (startproto and defaultproto)

Expressions have been completely rewritten, using an infix notation (instead of the previous XML-based one)

The packet global variable has been introduced

Expressions are no longer supported in <case> elements; a new element (<default>) has been defined for the default branch; the number of supported attributes changed and most of the time they have child elements

temp fields are no longer available

Some visualization elements/attributes changed their name (e.g. pdmlfield ==> protofield, …)

Some attributes changed in the PDML format (e.g. show ==> showvalue)

First public version of the NetPDL Specification