Talk:Profiling (computer programming)

message: The page used to give "program analysis" as a synonym, but that is misleading to my ears.  I have clarified it to "dynamic program analysis".  --Lexspoon 14:59, 9 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Not synonym

message: Changed "In computer science, ..." to "In software engineering, ...".  I think realistically, performance analysis is something engineers do--and only when they have to.  --Jorend 12:54, 14 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Wording change

message: Shouldn't a profiling disambig be made? 134.193.168.234 23:18, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Disam?

message: Needs to be trimmed.  All the tools listed could be made into a list in the article (without the extern links), but as it is, the links offer no further info on the topic, just ads for various tools. — Frecklefoot | Talk 14:58, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Better than none. :-) --Leo 19:44, 27 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  Please don't delete that collection of links, maybe create a list page sorted by language and profiler features though, like list of unit testing frameworks. --Chris Pickett 01:48, 4 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Extern links just advertising

message: What about the performance analysis that Systems Administrators(/Programmers/Whatever) do?
this should be discussed in a way, and an article has to be written on Performance tuning. System Performance tuning is usually done by System Administrators it can be Server tuning, Operating system tuning to Webserver tuning, application server, database tuning depending on the component architecture of the system. Code tuning is what we call if the application or program is not tuned for performance properly, all code tuning and system tuning should be followed by load testing and retuning until the proper performance is met.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Adubinsky (talk • contribs) 11:51, 13 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Systems? 

message: Shouldn't this page also say something about static analysis?
Maybe also a link to Algorithmic efficiency could be added. --Bernard François 21:08, 2 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  How about static analysis? 

message: Forgive me, but I've never seen any profiler that is nearly as effective as the simple technique of getting the program in question running under a debugger, hitting the "pause" button, and then examining the call stack.  If this is done several times, if there is a slowness bug in the program, it becomes very obvious.  I hate to sound like I'm voicing just a personal opinion, but this is easily put to an objective test.  Any comments?
65.96.64.14 21:41, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Whither profiling?

message: To my knowledge "Monte Carlo Profilers" work by sampling the program counter on a timer interrupt.
Yes, and some of them also sample the entire call stack.  I believe the Sun profiler is the only one (currently) that allows you to figure out, for individual call statements (as opposed to entire functions), what fraction of the time they are active on the stack..  In my experience, this is the number that matters.  What's more, most of the information comes in the first few samples, the rest only giving needless precision.  For example, if a program takes 20 seconds to run, and in 5 out of 10 samples the instruction "file foo.c, line 101: call bar()" appears, removing that call, if possible, would save 10 seconds (more or less).  If bar() takes 10 seconds and is called once, or takes 10 microseconds and is called a million times makes no difference.  Of course, removing the entire function bar() (or speeding it way up) would get the same effect, but the call is more likely to be removeable than the entire function.
To put it another way, different instructions take different amounts of time.  "fadd" (floating point add) takes a lot more cycles than "mov eax,ebx" (move register).  This shows up in the program counter histogram, because the timer interrupt is more likely to occur in the longer instruction.  It makes sense, then, to try to use fewer of such instructions, so the program will take fewer cycles.  However, some instructions take millions of times longer, and would help enormously if they could be removed, but they are essentially ignored by the program counter histogram.  An example is "call _fprintf".  If when a timer interrupt occurred, not only the PC were histogrammed, but every unique return address on the call stack, this deficiency would be remedied.  If that slows down the program being profiled, so what?
The object is to find out what needs to be optimized, not to measure how fast it isn't.
MikeDunlavey 20:41, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Monte Carlo Profiler? 

message: As it is, this page sort of assumes these things are the same:
* performance analysis = profiling = measuring performance = diagnosing performance problems = optimizing performance
I wonder if it makes sense to re-arrange it to split these ideas apart.
Any comments?
Thanks, MikeDunlavey 14:29, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Time to re-org this page? 

message: I think all the external links in the list of profilers should be removed per WP:SPAM, WP:EL, and WP:NOT#LINK. --Ronz 23:38, 25 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: See WP:LIST.  We can try to come up with an alternative criteria for inclusion in the list other than what I'm proposing, which is to only include tools that have their own article (or have appropriate mention in another article such as a section about a tool in an article about the company that makes the tool). --Ronz 15:29, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

text: Yep.  Either that or we come up with another criteria.  Can we find a list of these tools to refer too, preferably as part of a WP:RS? --Ronz 17:17, 3 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Linkfarm

message: VTune should either not redirect here, or it should be mentioned in the text. Else, a reader still does not know in what relation VTune stands to profilers and therefore does not know what it is, which is the point of this page.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.77.146.24 (talk) 19:56, 6 September 2008 (UTC)
replies: text:  I agree. gprof (or Gprof?) has the same problem. It is mentioned though, but the redirect means there is no particular information about what Gprof is.    --Mortense (talk) 15:55, 23 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[VTune]] redirects here, but is not mentioned in the text. 

message: This section does not seem to be very encyclopaedic. It describes one particular technique of performance analysis, and description is very detailed, in a how to style. I suggest removing the section completely or making it a lot briefer. Unless there will be some links provided to prove the technique is notable and not an original research, I will delete the section. The only articles linked are written by the same person which wrote this Wikipedia section, which consitutes conflict of interests.  BIS Ondrej (talk) 21:42, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Was replaced by a link to another article by the original editor, where the technique is explained briefly - which I think is great solution. Thanks. BIS Ondrej (talk) 09:36, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Simple manual technique 

message: The external link to the Microsoft article is over 4 years old, and the movie that was hosted there is no longer viewable. I commented on this on Ronz's 'talk' page, but I'm not sure if this feedback should be left here too.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.35.53.253 (talk) 20:59, 9 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Microsoft link no longer works 

message: Looks like another unsourced conjecture Tedickey (talk) 19:37, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Instruction level bottlenecks 

message: I am doing some research on dynamic system analysis and wanted to list the different techniques used for profiling. Now I read here about Event-based and statistical profilers. But I cannot find on what this information is based. The only site where I could find the keyword "Event-based profiling" was this one: . It's about some profiling tool. The point is that there they explain that event-based profiling is statistical profiling (Like time-based profiling, event-based profiling relies upon statistical sampling to build a program profile.), which leaves me to wonder what the basis is of the division between the two on this wikipedia page. Is this based on the intuition of the author and how he perceived it or on some other source? (This is my first comment on a wikipedia page so forgive me if I didn't keep myself to all the standards) Matthijs.Wessels (talk) 15:11, 12 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Event-based profiling 

message: The example isn't encyclopedic:
* it's not sourced to a published analysis,
* there's no reliable source at all
* the bulk of it is just cut/paste (at best) with no discussion of what it does
hope that helps Tedickey (talk) 09:53, 27 February 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Random unsourced example related to DBMS_PROFILE 

message: I don't think Gprof / gprof should redirect here. If it does not deserve its own page, then it should redirect to a list of profilers.
Convenience link: Gprof.
--Mortense (talk) 16:03, 23 March 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Agree (there are too many redirects).  gprof is probably notable, but "someone" should write a topic on it to demonstrate that. Tedickey (talk) 20:56, 23 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Gprof should not redirect here 

message: Hello, I would like to know the difference between "Instrumenting" and "Instrumentation".
There are 2 paragraphs with titles "Instrumenting profilers" and "Instrumentation". I am not sure whether "Instrumenting" and "Instrumentation" have different meaning.
Thank in advance
--Wolfch (talk) 15:20, 15 December 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi Wolfch. I think you are correct to raise this question. I have merged the two sections. Murray Langton (talk) 17:44, 15 December 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: thanks--Wolfch (talk) 02:28, 17 December 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  What is the difference between "Instrumenting" and "Instrumentation" ? 

message: One of the earlier references to a program execution analyzer is the write-up by Leigh Power, entitled "Design and use of a program execution analyzer", which appeared in the IBM SYSTEMS JOURNAL, VOL 22, NO 3, 1983, ppg 271-294.
32.97.110.58 (talk) 21:06, 12 June 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Design and use of a program execution analyzer 

message: I wonder why do we use the word "profiling". I think the origin of the term should be included in the article.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:2149:8122:C100:E815:19FD:ECD0:5E34 (talk) 08:51, 30 March 2017 (UTC)
thread_title: Origin