Call-Tree invisible

Uwe Keim

Sometimes, when the profiler should display the call-tree

"Summarizing results" and the green wheel is being displayed. Then the wheel disappears and the graph should be displayed, but is not.

When I switch to grid view and then back to tree, it appears.

Maybe I must wait longer? But when the progress is gone, I expect the result to appear.

JasonC

No, you should not have to wait longer. When the green wheel disappears, the call-tree should appear immediately.

Does this bug occur every time? What type of application are you profiling?

Uwe Keim

Thanks, Jason

I am profiling a Windows Forms 2.0 application (this one, to be precise).

I did experience this behaviour this week for the first time, maybe it was present previously, too, but I did not recognize it.

It does appear in 4.1, too, to which I upgraded today.

JasonC

I'm not really sure what could have caused this. It is probably a bug when profiling large applications with lots of results. We will try to repoduce it here at Red-Gate. Thanks for the information!

JasonC

I'm using 1.0.1.9, but have been unable to get very far with it. When I try to open the standard example project, it says 'The standard project was not found'.

When I try to create my own project it says 'Project created succesfully', but then gives me 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object', and doesn't open the project I just created.

Uwe Keim

Sorry for that, Jason!

Do you use Windows Vista?
You have an English (en-GB) system?

JasonC

I am using Windows XP. I have an en-GB system.

Uwe Keim

I'll immediately try to reproduce, please be patient.

(and thanks for your support, I really appreciate!)

JasonC

Ah... I managed to fix it by copying the contents of the C:\Documents and Settings\jason.crease\My Documents\Zeta Test\Stationary\ENU directory to C:\Documents and Settings\jason.crease\My Documents\Zeta Test\Stationary\ENG.

Uwe Keim

Just found out, too after I set up a en-GB VMware machine.

Will change my code immediately.

Uwe Keim

Just updated the setup with the new version: http://zeta-test.com/preview.

JasonC

Awesome, using ZetaTest I've been able to repoduce both bugs you have reported. Thank you!

Both are caused by the same issue. Your program has more complex stacktraces than most programs - largely due to use of XML and Regexes. Consequently, when ANTS Profiler tries to draw the call tree of your stack traces, it quickly runs out of memory.

We will try to resolve this by trying improving the memory efficiency of ANTS Profiler. In the meantime, I can suggest the following:
1. Profile in 'Only methods with source (fastest)' mode. This uses only a fraction of the memory used by other modes.
2. Try using a x64 machine. Since ANTS Profiler will run as x64, there are no limits on its memory usage.

Uwe Keim

Thanks, Jason!

Any suggestion on how to improve Zeta Test (which is currently Beta, of course) to lower the stack traces?

Best regards
Uwe

JasonC

Having lots of different stack traces isn't a bad thing - it is just often happens when using lots of XML and Regexes. I don't think this is a problem with Zeta Test, but just a problem with ANTS Profiler.

To reduce the complexity of the Regex calls, it might be worth trying to use RegexOptions.Compiled, if you do not do so already. This will probably give you a speed increase, and reduce the complexity of stacktraces.