Fellow monks,

I need advice about a program im currently working on (as hobby, not work :).

Im writing a msn client (well, currently it is just a sniffer... :P)

Im using this modules for the main application:

Net::Pcap
NetPacket::Ethernet
NetPacket::TCP
NetPacket::IP

and Term::ANSIColor to make it have a nice look. I will port it to GTK asap.
I use also Data::Dumper, and of course, strict and -w ;).

What im really wondering if it is worth the effort of analysing the whole protocol (there is useful documentation here), and scramble and unscramble every single packet, at level 3 or 4 OSI, rather than using sockets, or a more high level library (Net::MSN lacks of a good api documentation).

So, my choices are: reinventig the weel, and maybe produce a better documentation, or try to do it in a more conventional way (say, higher level rather than analyzing packets byte by byte).

Under my point of view, doing this at lowest level as possible easiest the handling of new versions of the protocol, and also reimplements something not very well documented at all.

I personally find this a good idea, but id like to hear different oppinions.

Kind regards!