Product Reviews
Optimization the Smart Way
AQTime helps you target problem code
Do you know which ten functions in your application account for the most
time during an average run? What percentage of your code is actually visited
by your test suite? Are you freeing all the memory that you allocate?
If you don't know the answer to these questions, then your toolbox is
probably lacking a profiler. One excellent choice for filling that gap
is AQTime, from AutomatedQA (makers of AQTest, which I reviewed in the
last issue of Developer Central). If you're using Microsoft Visual C+
or Visual Basic, Borland Delphi or C++ Builder, or the gnu gcc compiler,
AQTime can give you a detailed look at what's going on when you run your
application.
AQTime is simple to use. Open it, load your executable application, choose
a type of profiling to do (for example, a line-by-line coverage profile,
or a function time profile), and hit the run button. Then use your application
as you normally would, while AQTime collects the data. When you exit your
application, the results are right there, with a variety of views from
functional diagrams to bar charts of relative times to numeric results.
Of course AQTime also integrates with AQTest, giving you an ideal way
to see whether your test suite covers all the code in your application,
and integrating performance data with bug hunting. There's even an integrated
source code editor so you can see just what code is contained in the problem
functions.
Some applications can get away without optimization. If yours is one
of those, great. If not, the cost of AQTime can easily be saved in helping
you focus just on the pieces of code that need the most work in pursuit
of efficiency.
About the Author
Mike Gunderloy, MCSE, MCSD, MCDBA, is a former MCP columnist and the author of numerous development books.