New .Net software tools
We’ve spent the last few years creating our software tools for C++, Java and all the funky scripting languages that are now getting the recognition they deserve (Python, Ruby, JavaScript, etc).
During all this time we’ve have been asked if we have .Net versions of our tools, nearly always a question related to C#. We had to answer “No, but we will have .Net versions at some time in the future.”. That time has come. We now have .Net versions of Memory Validator and Performance Validator available as beta products.
Users of our popular Memory Validator software tool (for C++, Delphi…) will notice that the UI for .Net is quite different. This is because detecting memory leaks in garbage collected environments requires different approaches to collecting and analysing data. We have some innovative ideas in .Net Memory Validator, including the Allocations view, which provides a breakdown of objects allocated per function name; the Objects view, which provides a breakdown of objects allocated per object type; the Generations view, which provides an easy to read display of how many objects allocated per generation per object type. You can easily spot the trend graph of object usage and determine which objects are climbing or falling. A reference view allows you to view the object heap as a graph. The hotspots, memory, analysis, virtual and diagnostic tabs will be familiar to users of the original Memory Validator for C++.
.Net Memory Validator has the same user interface features you will find on our other Memory Validator products for other garbage collected languages (Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, etc) making ease of use when switching languages a doddle. As with all our products the .Net version, although different under the hood has the same team behind it. You are probably familiar with the case of a company creating a software tool for language X and then porting it support language Y, but the language Y version is lacking because it was a ground up rewrite, often by people unfamiliar with the language X version. This leads to incompatiblities, differnt UI behaviour, new bugs. That isn’t how we create our new language versions. Each version has its own code base, which allows for the radical under the hood changes to accomodate each language. But it has the same team and keeps the same user interface elements where applicable. So even if the code under the hood changes you get the same experience regardless of language.
This also allows our bug fixing to be improved. Many bugs from one version of a product apply to our other language versions. Thus if we find and fix a bug in say Java Memory Validator that bug fix can often be applied to JavaScript Memory Validator, Python Memory Validator, Ruby Memory Validator and .Net Memory Validator, etc. And our customers usually get the bug fix the very next day. This development method has been carried into the .Net line of software tools.
.Net Performance Validator continues this trend of the same user interface. If you know how to use any of our Performance Validator products (including the C++ version) you will know how to use .Net Performance Validator. Its that easy.
The callstack view provides a real time insight onto where a particular thread is running. Raw Statistics lets you inspect the raw data collected about performance and Statistics lets you inspect this data in a more orderly fashion. Relations provides the same information but allows you to view which function was called from which function. Call Tree provides the a call tree which you can expand and contract to view the performance data. Call Graph provides this information as a graph with each function listed as infrequently as possible. Call Graph is a very useful way to find an expensive function, then right click, choose goto Call Tree Node and the first node in the call tree that relates to the same node in the Call Graph expands with the node highlighted and source code displayed if available. Analysis allows complex queries onto the data and the diagnostic tab provides information about the instrumentation process.
Cheers for now, we have more .Net tools to work on.
Linux? MacOS X? Not right now, but some time in the future. Where have you read that before? 🙂