Vector35 / binaryninja-api

Public API, examples, documentation and issues for Binary Ninja
https://binary.ninja/
MIT License
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Feature Request: Windows for Imports and Exports #1700

Open tekwizz123 opened 4 years ago

tekwizz123 commented 4 years ago

As discussed with @psifertex on Slack, at the moment there is no way to view imports and exports for a given binary unless you click on View->Triage Summary. Ideally there should be a window option such that you can click on Window->Imports or Window->Exports and then see the Imports and Exports for a given binary, similar to the Imports and Exports view in IDA Pro.

The real reason this is needed is that many of us coming from IDA Pro aren't even really aware of the Triage Summary view as the emphasis is placed on using Triage for analyzing many binaries at once, and the name Triage implies high level overview information. This, combined with the fact that IDA Pro and many other disassemblers have a default set of dedicated windows for viewing imports and exports, can lead to a confusing experience.

Therefore by implementing these windows, it should be possible to give users a more pleasant user experience and will allow users to more easily convert from other disassemblers.

ccarpenter04 commented 4 years ago

I would rather see this as a plugin if it's included because I'm in favor of the current triage view and would be very disappointed if it were to be split up. In my opinion, it's very clean, helps to absorb basic information needed when analyzing a new file faster. Entropy, dependencies, permissions, segment and section names/sizes.... it's great for making inferences at a glance and helps to point me to a starting point much faster than IDA ever did in the past.

And the reason I would prefer it to not be built into the menu bar is because I don't want the menu bar to seem bloated as bloated as IDAs does to me.

tekwizz123 commented 4 years ago

@ccarpenter04 I appreciate that insight, just not sure how the menu as it stands is bloated? Even it it were bloated, the command palette does exist to help eliminate this problem and make things easier to find. Personally I prefer menus as I know where to look for things after a few goes but I imagine the command palette should make it easier for those who might not be as inclined to this.

Also to be clear since someone mentioned this in Slack before, I'm not intending to remove this from the Triage view. I'm merely asking for the addition of these extra windows in a manner similar to the Hex or Strings window, as this will make things easier to navigate to for those of us used to the menu system.

Again I do like the triage view and don't want this to change. Its one thing that IDA Pro doesn't have and that I wish they would implement.

psifertex commented 4 years ago

Another work-around for this is that the function-list has a right-click option that allows you to show imports/show exports and do so exclusively. I realize this isn't the same as the request here so leaving this request open to track whenever we implement a dedicated window.