Crucial precautions
When purchasing a software profiler/tracer you’ll be well advised to test the various tools on the market with the utmost care. This applies especially when the software you are developing is going to be used in sensitive areas where there is a lot at stake or where reliable software can even be a matter of life or death.
Misleading methodologies
A lot of conventional profilers tend to poke around the symptoms instead of drilling down to the root cause of a problem. Or worse, they might let you drill down in the wrong places just giving you the impression that you’re getting there when you’re actually not. Besides, they tend to intrude upon the application in the act of evaluation to the point of distortion. All this is liable to yield misleading results, lead your diagnostics astray, and induce the wrong kinds of treatment – perhaps the cure that kills the patient.
First get the facts!
To prevent distortion by intrusion (overhead) SpeedTrace takes a more systematic approach. Akin to a doctor’s anamnesis, SpeedTrace initiates its diagnosis by first recording without evaluating the overall picture, thus presenting you with an overview of the software product’s general "constitution". By thus gaining a bird’s eye view of the matter you are able to transparently map out all the problem areas of a version for the subsequent tracing analysis.
Intuitiveness vs. reliability
It is often said that other profilers may be more "intuitive", but that does not in the least make them just as sound and objective. Life is often not as simple as we’d like it to be, and complex situations usually require more intricate procedures and greater routine. In my view, this applies particularly to profiling and tracing software issues.
More than just a tool!
SpeedTrace’s more sophisticated architecture offers the user maximum flexibility, reliability and accuracy:
- SpeadTrace’s holistic diagnostics procedure provides you with a clear, pre-evaluative "roadmap" for your analysis!
- SpeadTrace’s thoroughly systematic methodology (modular filtering system, blackboxing function, scalable viewing, versatile aggregations, etc.) helps you to optimize your search and in effect drill down deep into the problematic lines of your code!
- SpeadTrace’s guaranteed nonintrusiveness (due to minimized overhead) obviates a major source of misleading information and distortion of the facts. SpeedTrace’s architecture even allows you to read out results without overhead!
Your choice can make a difference!
It can really make a difference whether you prioritize intuitive quick fixes and hazard the consequences or opt for a really reliable and accurate tool that has its complexities and requires some initial familiarizing. We therefore encourage our customers to benefit from our extensive support system and individual consulting to get started.
In conclusion, wherever safety and security is at stake and absolute reliability is required, SpeedTrace is most probably your best choice.
