From: Michael L Torrie <torriem@cs.byu.edu>
Newsgroups: byu.class.f00.c-s.c460
Subject: A better way to view the bytes

Rather than simply see the stream of bytes using () to surround
non-printable characters, it would probably be better for most people to
view them in the traditional 16-column hex/ascii display, like so:

ethernet
00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07  08 09 0a 0b 0c 0d 0e 0f   ........ ........
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17  18 19 1a 1b 1c 1d 1e 1f   ........ ........
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27  28 29 2a 2b 2c 2d 2e 2f    !"#$%&' ()*+,-./
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37  38 39 3a 3b 3c 3d 3e 3f   01234567 89:;<=>?
40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47  48 49 4a 4b 4c 4d 4e 4f   @ABCDEFG HIJKLMNO
50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57  00 00                     PQRSTUVW ..


This way you can see both the hex codes and the printable ascii, in a
tabular way.  It's far easier to count bytes and stuff when it's
organized this way.   Unless there is some reason that I must view the
data in the other format, I am using this method of viewing in my
project.  (It is also similar to how data will be presented in the
sniffer, so this makes it easier to catch patterns, etc.)

Most I'm sure could code up an output subroutine that would do this.
here's mine (MAXLEN is defined as 90):

void print_chars(char *head, unsigned char *buff, int length)
{
int i;
int j;
#ifdef PRINTING

 printf("%s\n",head);
 for(i = 0; i < length; i+=16) {
  for (j=0; j<16 ; j++){
   if(j==8) printf(" ");
   if(i+j < MAXLEN) {
      printf("%02x ",buff[i+j]);
     }else{
      printf("   ");
     }
    }
    printf("  ");
    for (j=0; j<16 ; j++){
   if(j==8) printf(" ");
   if(i+j < MAXLEN) {
      if(buff[i+j]>31){
       printf("%c",buff[i+j]);
      }else{
       printf(".");
      }
     }
    }
    printf("\n");
 }
#endif
}