gmane.comp.lang.smalltalk.squeak.general

Eliot Miranda | 12 Jul 03:12

histogram-based profiling tools on Mac OS X?

Hi All,

I'm badly in need of a histogram-based profiler for the VM I'm working on. This is something that produces a histogram of time taken against PC, insead of time taken against function. The interpreter is a very large function and so function-centric tools aren't (IME) that useful. I've written ones for BrouHaHa and VisualWorks and will write one again if pushed. But I wonder whether anyone knows of anything off-the-shelf or close enough to be wroth using as a starting point. For example, has anyone written a graphing tool in Squeak using Morphic that I could steal for the UI? Yes I could start with gprof and/or gcov but I find graphical histograms much more immediate and helpful.

TIA

Eliot

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Avi Bryant | 12 Jul 03:23

Re: histogram-based profiling tools on Mac OS X?

Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're asking for, you already have
one installed:
/Developer/Applications/Performance Tools/Shark.app

Eg:
http://developer.apple.com/tools/images/codeProfile.jpg

Avi

On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 6:16 PM, Eliot Miranda <eliot.miranda <at> gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi All,
>     I'm badly in need of a histogram-based profiler for the VM I'm working
> on.  This is something that produces a histogram of time taken against PC,
> insead of time taken against function.  The interpreter is a very large
> function and so function-centric tools aren't (IME) that useful.  I've
> written ones for BrouHaHa and VisualWorks and will write one again if
> pushed.  But I wonder whether anyone knows of anything off-the-shelf or
> close enough to be wroth using as a starting point.  For example, has anyone
> written a graphing tool in Squeak using Morphic that I could steal for the
> UI?  Yes I could start with gprof and/or gcov but I find graphical
> histograms much more immediate and helpful.
> TIA
> Eliot
>
>
>

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Colin Putney | 12 Jul 03:36

Re: histogram-based profiling tools on Mac OS X?


On 11-Jul-08, at 6:23 PM, Avi Bryant wrote:

> Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're asking for, you already have
> one installed:
> /Developer/Applications/Performance Tools/Shark.app
>
> Eg:
> http://developer.apple.com/tools/images/codeProfile.jpg
>
> Avi
>
> On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 6:16 PM, Eliot Miranda <eliot.miranda <at> gmail.com 
> > wrote:
>> Hi All,
>>    I'm badly in need of a histogram-based profiler for the VM I'm  
>> working
>> on.  This is something that produces a histogram of time taken  
>> against PC,
>> insead of time taken against function.

Another option would be DTrace/Instruments, if you're running Leopard.

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/DeveloperTools/Conceptual/InstrumentsUserGuide/Introduction/chapter_1_section_1.html

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Eliot Miranda | 12 Jul 04:46

Re: histogram-based profiling tools on Mac OS X?

Hi Colin,

this is much closer to (and nicer than) what I had in mind. But it seems time-based. Does it include tools to relate to PC?

(e.g. a la http://www.mirandabanda.org/images/oeprofiler.jpg)

On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 6:36 PM, Colin Putney <cputney <at> wiresong.ca> wrote:

On 11-Jul-08, at 6:23 PM, Avi Bryant wrote:

Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're asking for, you already have
one installed:
/Developer/Applications/Performance Tools/Shark.app

Eg:
http://developer.apple.com/tools/images/codeProfile.jpg

Avi

On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 6:16 PM, Eliot Miranda <eliot.miranda <at> gmail.com> wrote:
Hi All,
I'm badly in need of a histogram-based profiler for the VM I'm working
on. This is something that produces a histogram of time taken against PC,
insead of time taken against function.

Another option would be DTrace/Instruments, if you're running Leopard.

http://developer.apple.com/documentation/DeveloperTools/Conceptual/InstrumentsUserGuide/Introduction/chapter_1_section_1.html

headers

Eliot Miranda | 12 Jul 04:45

Re: histogram-based profiling tools on Mac OS X?

Hi Avi,

On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 6:23 PM, Avi Bryant <avi <at> dabbledb.com> wrote:

Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're asking for, you already have
one installed:
/Developer/Applications/Performance Tools/Shark.app

Eg:
http://developer.apple.com/tools/images/codeProfile.jpg

Shark looks OK for a text-based tool. But its still line based. I prefer something more immediately graphical. e.g. here's my own tool for Windows (terrible UI)

http://www.mirandabanda.org/images/oeprofiler.jpg

But looks like Shark is minimal effort. Thanks!

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Simon Michael | 12 Jul 05:18

Re: histogram-based profiling tools on Mac OS X?

Hi Eliot,

these packages on squeakmap may be relevant:

http://map.squeak.org/package/1638a794-b413-4517-8bfb-38f664368ffe
http://map.squeak.org/package/5cd32afa-b24b-46b9-884e-7940d642b0d6
http://map.squeak.org/package/0bb31b1e-ad92-4cf8-b4ed-c4f9f24c7a6b

Best - Simon

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Simon Michael | 12 Jul 05:19

Re: histogram-based profiling tools on Mac OS X?

And I should have included http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak/2626 
(PlotMorph), which links to some apps using it.