Profiling Applications inProfiling Applications in

Luis I. GomezLuis I. Gomez

4.184.18

BR ProfilerBR Profiler• BR Profiler Feature

– Components– Profiler types– Profiling an application– Interpreting your results

• Customizing your Results– Profiler.wb– GUI editor (MyEdit or Notepad++)– Profiler.mdb

BR ProfilerBR Profiler

• BR Profiler Feature–Components–Profiler types–Profiling an application–Interpreting your results

BR 4.18 Profiler – ComponentsBR 4.18 Profiler – Components

• BR.EXE– Version 4.18+ required

• PROFILER.DOC– Documentation

• PROFILER.EXE– Utility to extract results.

BR 4.18 Profiler – TypesBR 4.18 Profiler – Types

• SAMPLED– DEBUG SAMPLED C:\WORK\SAMPLED.TXT– Itemized profile of each and every execution

clause – Can be very large

• TIMED– DEBUG TIMED C:\WORK\SAMPLED.TXT– Summary of Clauses, Functions & Go Subs

– Much smaller

BR 4.18 Profiler – TypesBR 4.18 Profiler – Types

• STOP– DEBUG STOP– Stops profiling

Profiling an Application.Profiling an Application.

• Load BR 4.18+

• Prepare for profiling– Start BR– Load desired application

• Start Profiler– You may start before the application runs– CTRL-A at a desired location– Imbed the profiler inside your application

Profiling an Application.Profiling an Application.

• Clauses–List Clause

• A clause is parsed by a ` (Not Necessarily a line)

Interpreting your results.Interpreting your results.

• PROFILER.EXE– PROFILER.EXE filename >RESULTS.TXT– PROFILER.EXE filename RAW >RAW.TXT– PROFILER.EXE filename PRETTY >PRETTY.TXT

• PROFILER.BAT– Simple Batch File to automate this complex step

Interpreting your results.Interpreting your results.

• DEFAULT–Simple Report with Totals

• RAW–Extracts all of the information for review

• PRETTY–Improved output over the default.

• Viewing Results–Results are Tab Delimited for easy viewing

Customizing your results.Customizing your results.

• Profiler.wb–CLS application (Available for general use)–Required BR 4.18+–Enter the “C:\WORK\PROFILE.TXT” file

Customizing your results.Customizing your results.

• Output Results (Tab Delimited Reports)

–Filename-Modules.txt–Filename-Results.txt–Filename-Stats.txt–Filename-Type.txt

• Source Code Results–Filename-[Full Path Name].brs

Customizing – Modules.txtCustomizing – Modules.txt• Filename-Modules.txt

– Each module is assigned a #– 0 – (Unsaved) Proc or similar– 1 – Usually the “Primary program”– 2 – ?? Libraries or “Other programs”

• Other files refer to modules by #

• Nice summary– Program names– Library names

Customizing – Results.txtCustomizing – Results.txt• Filename-Results.txt

– Itemized results

• Fields– Module - Module #

– Line - Program line #

– Clause - Program line clause #

– Spent - Time spent on clause

– Accrued - Total time (Timeline)

– Function - Function name (Timed)

– Gosub - Gosub name (Timed)

Customizing – Stats.txtCustomizing – Stats.txt

• Filename-Stats.txt– Totals based on profiler data– Combines source code to determine

• Clause type (Print, Input, etc)

• SAMPLED– Provides statistics based on # & time

spent

• TIMED– Provides Statistics based on # of executions

Customizing – Type.txtCustomizing – Type.txt

• Filename-Type.txt– Totals based on profiler data– Combines source code to determine

• Clause type (Print, Input, etc)

– Statistics based on clause type

• Identify the “cost” of BR commands.

• Ignore things like “User Input”

BR 4.18 Profiler – GUI EditorBR 4.18 Profiler – GUI Editor• Filename-[Full Path Name].BRS

– Complete source code extracted– List clause

• Fields– Line #– Clause– Total # times executed– Time spent (If Sampled)– Detailed clause

• Edit using MyEdit or Notepad++

BR 4.18 Profiler – Profiler.mdbBR 4.18 Profiler – Profiler.mdb

• Simple MS-Access database

• Automatically links to– C:\WORK\PROFILE-MODULES.TXT– C:\WORK\PROFILE-RESULTS.TXT– C:\WORK\PROFILE-STATS.TXT– C:\WORK\PROFILE-TYPE.TXT

BR 4.18 Profiler – Profiler.mdbBR 4.18 Profiler – Profiler.mdb

• How to use– Create your profile reports– Copy the results to above file names– Execute query

• This is a sample – you can be more creative!

Sample ApplicationSample Application

• PRO-SLOW.WB– Sample application parses & displays the

words used in STATUS ALL.– Takes roughly 30 seconds to execute

• Most executed– Lines 4040,4050, 3020,3040,3100

• Longest execution time– Line 3070,4040,4050,4020,321

Sample Application - ProblemsSample Application - Problems

• Poor Placement– FNSORT_WORDS

• This routine is executed many times!• Ultimately, it is only needed at the very end.• Moved to line 395

Sample Application - ProblemsSample Application - Problems

• Complex Line– 3040 – SREP & UPRC$

• One of the most executed lines• Relatively slow • Very complex & hard to read!• Move UPRC$ & break out SREP

Sample Application - ProblemsSample Application - Problems

• Longest Execution Time– 321 PRINT #

• Print is very slow in GUI Mode• No need to display 1062 Times!

– 3070 PRINT # & SUM• Print is very slow in GUI Mode• No Need to Display 7048 Times• Could be consolidated with 321• Create New Counter instead of using SUM.

Sample Application - SolutionSample Application - Solution• PRO-FAST.WB

– Application with Solutions applied– Time reduced from 30 seconds to 1

• Line 3040– WORD$=SREP$(SREP$(SREP$(TRIM$(LINE$(1:NMARKER-1)),'"',""),",",""),"_","")

– Is it Worth Faster Execution for a complex line?– Sometimes it’s actually faster to split it up.

• (Not this time)

Sample Application - SolutionSample Application - Solution• How Far to Go?

– Once we have 30 times improvement do we care?

– 330 – “Stretchy Array” Is somewhat slow.

Profiler – SummaryProfiler – Summary

• Dramatically improve performance

• Identify Problem Areas

• Learn about the BR Internals

• Extend capabilities with your own code