Club Amiga de Montreal - CAM/CAM_CD_1.iso/files/454.lha/StackWatch/SWreadme.pp/SWreadme

Text File | 1990-12-09 | 25KB | 682 lines

C





This is StackWatch.  I wrote it because no one else did.

Legal Stuff

StackWatch © 1990 by James R. Locker.  All rights reserved.  Feel free to
redistribute this program  so  long  as  you  don't  modify it, you don't
profit by it (except  a  reasonable  disk  copying  charge),  and  you do
include all the documentation.   No  shareware  fee  is  requested, but I
never turn down a contribution.

FIRST A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR

VIDEO PROFESSIONALS...Control any Amiga application (such as an animation
or titling program)  through  the  Amiga's  second  gameport,  from a GPI
controller, or from any other  external  device that can provide a switch
closure.  Automatically synchronize your  animations with another source.
Reduce your workload.  Let the Amiga do the work for you.

Contact:

 Jim Locker
 Integral Systems Co.
 P.O. Box 31626
 Dayton, Oh 45424
 [phone]

 for information about VidControl and MasterControl.

HANDICAPPED USERS...operate the  Amiga  WITHOUT A KEYBOARD.  KeyWhiz (tm)
enables keyboard input to any application  using only a joystick or other
custom input device connected to  the  second gameport.  The entire Amiga
keyboard is supported, and  operation  is transparent to the application.
Contact Integral Systems Co. for information.

AND NOW ON WITH THE SHOW

What StackWatch does is quite simple.   It monitors the stack of the task
or process that you  select.   It C





This is StackWatch.  I wrote it because no one else did.

Legal Stuff

StackWatch © 1990 by James R. Locker.  All rights reserved.  Feel free to
redistribute this program  so  long  as  you  don't  modify it, you don't
profit by it (except  a  reasonable  disk  copying  charge),  and  you do
include all the documentation.   No  shareware  fee  is  requested, but I
never turn down a contribution.

FIRST A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR

VIDEO PROFESSIONALS...Control any Amiga application (such as an animation
or titling program)  through  the  Amiga's  second  gameport,  from a GPI
controller, or from any other  external  device that can provide a switch
closure.  Automatically synchronize your  animations with another source.
Reduce your workload.  Let the Amiga do the work for you.

Contact:

 Jim Locker
 Integral Systems Co.
 P.O. Box 31626
 Dayton, Oh 45424
 [phone]

 for information about VidControl and MasterControl.

HANDICAPPED USERS...operate the  Amiga  WITHOUT A KEYBOARD.  KeyWhiz (tm)
enables keyboard input to any application  using only a joystick or other
custom input device connected to  the  second gameport.  The entire Amiga
keyboard is supported, and  operation  is transparent to the application.
Contact Integral Systems Co. for information.

AND NOW ON WITH THE SHOW

What StackWatch does is quite simple.   It monitors the stack of the task
or process that you  select.   It  will  try  to  run  about 30 times per
second, so it will look at your  stack  frequently.   This enables you to
keep a pretty good ongoing record  of  how you are doing, stack-wise.  It
is much faster about updating then, for instance, Xoper.  This is because
its purpose is different than Xoper's  and it is dedicated to one job and
only one job.  It seems to do that one thing fairly well.

The Amiga is a  very  stack  intensive  machine.   If  you do not provide
enough stack for your routine, you  will  encounter  intermittent crashes
and peculiar behavior.  Unfortunately,  the operating system doesn't tell
you when you run out of stack, and  most  applications  don't check their
own stack (although some  do...StackWatch,  for  instance, does not watch
its own stack.)

If you set your stack up to a huge number, you will probably be safe, but
you are also  wasting  memory.   What  is  needed  is a good way to tell,
dynamically, how any program is  doing.   You  may then tailor your stack












allocations to be more efficient.

StackWatch helps you with this.

Using StackWatch

StackWatch starts from CLI only.  It requires  one command line argument,
which is the name of the task or process to be monitored.  This name must
be entered EXACTLY  as  it  is  maintained  in  the  system  task  lists.
StackWatch is case sensitive, so if  you  use  an upper case letter while
the system knows the task by a lower case letter, it won't work.

The syntax is as follows:

StackWatch MyTaskName  <RETURN>

For instance,

StackWatch Scribble!

 will monitor Scribble!.

StackWatch will find  Workbench  or  CLI  applications.   An  application
started from Workbench will have  the  exact  name shown on the icon.  An
application started from CLI may be known by a number of different names,
depending upon how it hooks itself into the system.  For instance, if you
start the Calculator utility that is found in the Utilities drawer of the
Workbench  disk  by  clicking   on  its  icon,  it  will  have  the  name
"Calculator" and typing:

StackWatch Calculator

will get you there.  However, if you start Calculator from the CLI, while
your current directory is the utilities  drawer, then the routine will be
known to the system according to the exact name (including case) that you
invoked it by.   If  you  invoked  it  by  its  full  path name - such asC





This is StackWatch.  I wrote it because no one else did.

Legal Stuff

StackWatch © 1990 by James R. Locker.  All rights reserved.  Feel free to
redistribute this program  so  long  as  you  don't  modify it, you don't
profit by it (except  a  reasonable  disk  copying  charge),  and  you do
include all the documentation.   No  shareware  fee  is  requested, but I
never turn down a contribution.

FIRST A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR

VIDEO PROFESSIONALS...Control any Amiga application (such as an animation
or titling program)  through  the  Amiga's  second  gameport,  from a GPI
controller, or from any other  external  device that can provide a switch
closure.  Automatically synchronize your  animations with another source.
Reduce your workload.  Let the Amiga do the work for you.

Contact:

 Jim Locker
 Integral Systems Co.
 P.O. Box 31626
 Dayton, Oh 45424
 [phone]

 for information about VidControl and MasterControl.

HANDICAPPED USERS...operate the  Amiga  WITHOUT A KEYBOARD.  KeyWhiz (tm)
enables keyboard input to any application  using only a joystick or other
custom input device connected to  the  second gameport.  The entire Amiga
keyboard is supported, and  operation  is transparent to the application.
Contact Integral Systems Co. for information.

AND NOW ON WITH THE SHOW

What StackWatch does is quite simple.   It monitors the stack of the task
or process that you  select.   It  will  try  to  run  about 30 times per
second, so it will look at your  stack  frequently.   This enables you to
keep a pretty good ongoing record  of  how you are doing, stack-wise.  It
is much faster about updating then, for instance, Xoper.  This is because
its purpose is different than Xoper's  and it is dedicated to one job and
only one job.  It seems to do that one thing fairly well.

The Amiga is a  very  stack  intensive  machine.   If  you do not provide
enough stacC





This is StackWatch.  I wrote it because no one else did.

Legal Stuff

StackWatch © 1990 by James R. Locker.  All rights reserved.  Feel free to
redistribute this program  so  long  as  you  don't  modify it, you don't
profit by it (except  a  reasonable  disk  copying  charge),  and  you do
include all the documentation.   No  shareware  fee  is  requested, but I
never turn down a contribution.

FIRST A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR

VIDEO PROFESSIONALS...Control any Amiga application (such as an animation
or titling program)  through  the  Amiga's  second  gameport,  from a GPI
controller, or from any other  external  device that can provide a switch
closure.  Automatically synchronize your  animations with another source.
Reduce your workload.  Let the Amiga do the work for you.

Contact:

 Jim Locker
 Integral Systems Co.
 P.O. Box 31626
 Dayton, Oh 45424
 [phone]

 for information about VidControl and MasterControl.

HANDICAPPED USERS...operate the  Amiga  WITHOUT A KEYBOARD.  KeyWhiz (tm)
enables keyboard input to any application  using only a joystick or other
custom input device connected to  the  second gameport.  The entire Amiga
keyboard is supported, and  operation  is transparent to the application.
Contact Integral Systems Co. for information.

AND NOW ON WITH THE SHOW

What StackWatch does is quite simple.   It monitors the stack of the task
or process that you  select.   It  will  try  to  run  about 30 times per
second, so it will look at your  stack  frequently.   This enables you to
keep a pretty good ongoing record  of  how you are doing, stack-wise.  It
is much faster about updating then, for instance, Xoper.  This is because
its purpose is different than Xoper's  and it is dedicated to one job and
only one job.  It seems to do that one thing fairly well.

The Amiga is a  very  stack  intensive  machine.   If  you do not provide
enough stack for your routine, you  will  encounter  intermittent crashes
and peculiar behavior.  Unfortunately,  the operating system doesn't tell
you when you run out of stack, and  most  applications  don't check their
own stack (although some  do...StackWatch,  for  instance, does not watch
its own stack.)

If you set your stack up to a huge number, you will probably be safe, but
you are also  wasting  memory.   What  is  needed  is a good way to tell,
dynamically, how any program is  doing.   You  may then tailor your stack












allocations to be more efficient.

StackWatch helps you with this.

Using StackWatch

StackWatch starts from CLI only.  It requires  one command line argument,
which is the name of the task or process to be monitored.  This name must
be entered EXACTLY  as  it  is  maintained  in  the  system  task  lists.
StackWatch is case sensitive, so if  you  use  an upper case letter while
the system knows the task by a lower case letter, it won't work.

The syntax is as follows:

StackWatch MyTaskName  <RETURN>

For instance,

StackWatch Scribble!

 will monitor Scribble!.

StackWatch will find  Workbench  or  CLI  applications.   An  application
started from Workbench will have  the  exact  name shown on the icon.  An
application started from CLI may be known by a number of different names,
depending upon how it hooks itself into the system.  For instance, if you
start the Calculator utility that is found in the Utilities drawer of the
Workbench  disk  by  clicking   on  its  icon,  it  will  have  the  name
"Calculator" and typing:

StackWatch Calculator

will get you there.  However, if you start Calculator from the CLI, while
your current directory is the utilities  drawer, then the routine will be
known to the system according to the exact name (including case) that you
invoked it by.   If  you  invoked  it  by  its  full  path name - such as
"sys:utilities/calculator", then  you  must  locate it with StackWatch by
typing:

StackWatch sys:utilities/calculator

Some utilities - such as PopCLI and  StackWatch  - detach themselves from
the CLI that started them.  These  utilities  tell  the system what their
name is.  StackWatch is known as -  you  guessed it - StackWatch.  PopCLI
has a name that depends on the  revision  number.   If you were to rename
StackWatch - maybe to SW - in order  to  save typing, it woulC





This is StackWatch.  I wrote it because no one else did.

Legal Stuff

StackWatch © 1990 by James R. Locker.  All rights reserved.  Feel free to
redistribute this program  so  long  as  you  don't  modify it, you don't
profit by it (except  a  reasonable  disk  copying  charge),  and  you do
include all the documentation.   No  shareware  fee  is  requested, but I
never turn down a contribution.

FIRST A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR

VIDEO PROFESSIONALS...Control any Amiga application (such as an animation
or titling program)  through  the  Amiga's  second  gameport,  from a GPI
controller, or from any other  external  device that can provide a switch
closure.  Automatically synchronize your  animations with another source.
Reduce your workload.  Let the Amiga do the work for you.

Contact:

 Jim Locker
 Integral Systems Co.
 P.O. Box 31626
 Dayton, Oh 45424
 [phone]

 for information about VidControl and MasterControl.

HANDICAPPED USERS...operate the  Amiga  WITHOUT A KEYBOARD.  KeyWhiz (tm)
enables keyboard input to any application  using only a joystick or other
custom input device connected to  the  second gameport.  The entire Amiga
keyboard is supported, and  operation  is transparent to the application.
Contact Integral Systems Co. for information.

AND NOW ON WITH THE SHOW

What StackWatch does is quite simple.   It monitors the stack of the task
or process that you  select.   It  will  try  to  run  about 30 times per
second, so it will look at your  stack  frequently.   This enables you to
keep a pretty good ongoing record  of  how you are doing, stack-wise.  It
is much faster about updating then, for instance, Xoper.  This is because
its purpose is different than Xoper's  and it is dedicated to one job and
only one job.  It seems to do that one thing fairly well.

The Amiga is a  very  stack  intensive  machine.   If  you do not provide
enough stack for your routine, you  will  encounter  intermittent crashes
and peculiar behavior.  Unfortunately,  the operating system doesn't tell
you when you run out of stack, and  most  applications  don't check their
own stack (although some  do...StackWatch,  for  instance, does not watch
its own stack.)

If you set your stack up to a huge number, you will probably be safe, but
you are also  wasting  memory.   What  is  needed  is a good way to tell,
dynamically, how any program is  doing.   You  may then tailor your stack












allocations to be more efficient.

StackWatch helps you with this.

Using StackWatch

StackWatch starts from CLI only.  It requires  one command line argument,
which is the name of the task or process to be monitored.  This name must
be entered EXACTLY  as  it  is  maintained  in  the  system  task  lists.
StackWatch is case sensitive, so if  you  use  an upper case letter while
the system knows the task by a lower case letter, it won't work.

The syntax is as follows:

StackWatch MyTaskName  <RETURN>

For instance,

StackWatch Scribble!

 will monitor Scribble!.

StackWatch will find  Workbench  or  CLI  applications.   An  application
started from Workbench will have  the  exact  name shown on the icon.  An
application started from CLI may be known by a number of different names,
depending upon how it hooks itself into the system.  For instance, if you
start the Calculator utility that is found in the Utilities drawer of the
Workbench  disk  by  clicking   on  its  icon,  it  will  have  the  name
"Calculator" and typing:

StackWatch Calculator

will get you there.  However, if you start Calculator from the CLI, while
your current directory is the utilities  drawer, then the routine will be
known to the system according to the exact name (including case) that you
invoked it by.   If  you  invoked  it  by  its  full  path name - such as
"sys:utilities/calculator", then  you  must  locate it with StackWatch by
typing:

StackWatch sys:utilities/calculator

Some utilities - such as PopCLI and  StackWatch  - detach themselves from
the CLI that started them.  These  utilities  tell  the system what their
name is.  StackWatch is known as -  you  guessed it - StackWatch.  PopCLI
has a name that depends on the  revision  number.   If you were to rename
StackWatch - maybe to SW - in order  to  save typing, it would still tell
the system that its name is  StackWatch,  and  you would have to track it
down by that name.

The point is that you might have to figure out what name the system knows
your intended target by.  This effort is facilitated by using the utility
Who - which I have provided in this archive.   I did not write it, but it
is useful and it will help you with StackWatch.













The StackWatch Window

Has four lines and a "gas gauge".  The  first line tells you what process
(or task)  StackWatch is  monitoring.   This is useful if you are running
multiple copies of StackWatch.  The second  line tells you what the stack
allocation for that  process  is.   The  third  line  tells  you what the
largest amount of  stack  used  was  at  any  time  since  StackWatch was
invoked.  The fourth line tells you what the stack usage is right now.

Below the text is a graphic display.  This "Gas Gauge" tells you - with a
picture - how much of your stack allocation  you are currently using.  It
also has a peak indicator that  tells  you what your peak stack usage has
been .  The peak indicator may move toward  the right of the display, but
it never comes back to the left.   It  is a "high water mark".   The "Gas
Gauge" will indicate stack overflows -  if the color bar slops out of the
box on the right, you  have  overflowed  your  stack.  You may or may not
crash, but it might be a good time to save any critical work in progress.

StackWatch limitations

Stackwatch  takes  "snapshots"  of  your  process  -  it  is  not looking
continuously.  Therefore, it won't necessarily spot a quick peak in stack
usage.  Caveat Emptor.

StackWatch hooks itself into the system  at priority 10, and wants to run
at frequent intervals.  One of the  first  things it does when running is
disable multitasking so it  can  safely  wander  through  the system Task
lists.  As a consequence,  under  certC





This is StackWatch.  I wrote it because no one else did.

Legal Stuff

StackWatch © 1990 by James R. Locker.  All rights reserved.  Feel free to
redistribute this program  so  long  as  you  don't  modify it, you don't
profit by it (except  a  reasonable  disk  copying  charge),  and  you do
include all the documentation.   No  shareware  fee  is  requested, but I
never turn down a contribution.

FIRST A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR

VIDEO PROFESSIONALS...Control any Amiga application (such as an animation
or titling program)  through  the  Amiga's  second  gameport,  from a GPI
controller, or from any other  external  device that can provide a switch
closure.  Automatically synchronize your  animations with another source.
Reduce your workload.  Let the Amiga do the work for you.

Contact:

 Jim Locker
 Integral Systems Co.
 P.O. Box 31626
 Dayton, Oh 45424
 [phone]

 for information about VidControl and MasterControl.

HANDICAPPED USERS...operate the  Amiga  WITHOUT A KEYBOARD.  KeyWhiz (tm)
enables keyboard input to any application  using only a joystick or other
custom input device connected to  the  second gameport.  The entire Amiga
keyboard is supported, and  operation  is transparent to the application.
Contact Integral Systems Co. for information.

AND NOW ON WITH THE SHOW

What StackWatch does is quite simple.   It monitors the stack of the task
or process that you  select.   It  will  try  to  run  about 30 times per
second, so it will look at your  stack  frequently.   This enables you to
keep a pretty good ongoing record  of  how you are doing, stack-wise.  It
is much faster about updating then, for instance, Xoper.  This is because
its purpose is different than Xoper's  and it is dedicated to one job and
only one job.  It seems to do that one thing fairly well.

The Amiga is a  very  stack  intensive  machine.   If  you do not provide
enough stack for your routine, you  will  encounter  intermittent crashes
and peculiar behavior.  Unfortunately,  the operating system doesn't tell
you when you run out of stack, and  most  applications  don't check their
own stack (although some  do...StackWatch,  for  instance, does not watch
its own stack.)

If you set your stack up to a huge number, you will probably be safe, but
you are also  wasting  memory.   What  is  needed  is a good way to tell,
dynamically, how any program is  doing.   You  may then tailor your stack












allocations to be more efficient.

StackWatch helps you with this.

Using StackWatch

StackWatch starts from CLI only.  It requires  one command line argument,
which is the name of the task or process to be monitored.  This name must
be entered EXACTLY  as  it  is  maintained  in  the  system  task  lists.
StackWatch is case sensitive, so if  you  use  an upper case letter while
the system knows the task by a lower case letter, it won't work.

The syntax is as follows:

StackWatch MyTaskName  <RETURN>

For instance,

StackWatch Scribble!

 will monitor Scribble!.

StackWatch will find  Workbench  or  CLI  applications.   An  application
started from Workbench will have  the  exact  name shown on the icon.  An
application started from CLI may be known by a number of different names,
depending upon how it hooks itself into the system.  For instance, if you
start the Calculator utility that is found in the Utilities drawer of the
Workbench  disk  by  clicking   on  its  icon,  it  will  have  the  name
"Calculator" and typing:

StackWatch Calculator

will get you there.  However, if you start Calculator from the CLI, while
your current directory is the utilities  drawer, then the routine will be
known to the system according to the exact name (including case) that you
invoked it by.   If  you  invoked  it  by  its  full  path name - such as
"sys:utilities/calculator", then  you  must  locate it with StackWatch by
typing:

StackWatch sys:utilities/calculator

Some utilities - such as PopCLI and  StackWatch  - detach themselves from
the CLI that started them.  These  utilities  tell  the system what their
name is.  StackWatch is known as -  you  guessed it - StackWatch.  PopCLI
has a name that depends on the  revision  number.   If you were to rename
StackWatch - maybe to SW - in order  to  save typing, it would still tell
the system that its name is  StackWatch,  and  you would have to track it
down by that name.

The point is that you might have to figure out what name the system knows
your intended target by.  This effort is facilitated by using the utility
Who - which I have provided in this archive.   I did not write it, but it
is useful and it will help you with StackWatch.













The StackWatch Window

Has four lines and a "gas gauge".  The  first line tells you what process
(or task)  StackWatch is  monitoring.   This is useful if you are running
multiple copies of StackWatch.  The second  line tells you what the stack
allocation for that  process  is.   The  third  line  tells  you what the
largest amount of  stack  used  was  at  any  time  since  StackWatch was
invoked.  The fourth line tells you what the stack usage is right now.

Below the text is a graphic display.  This "Gas Gauge" tells you - with a
picture - how much of your stack allocation  you are currently using.  It
also has a peak indicator that  tells  you what your peak stack usage has
been .  The peak indicator may move toward  the right of the display, but
it never comes back to the left.   It  is a "high water mark".   The "Gas
Gauge" will indicate stack overflows -  if the color bar slops out of the
box on the right, you  have  overflowed  your  stack.  You may or may not
crash, but it might be a good time to save any critical work in progress.

StackWatch limitations

Stackwatch  takes  "snapshots"  of  your  process  -  it  is  not looking
continuously.  Therefore, it won't necessarily spot a quick peak in stack
usage.  Caveat Emptor.

StackWatch hooks itself into the system  at priority 10, and wants to run
at frequent intervals.  One of the  first  things it does when running is
disable multitasking so it  can  safely  wander  through  the system Task
lists.  As a consequence,  under  certain  circumstances,  or if multiple
copies of StackWatch are running, it can noticeably slow system response.
I thought about providing  a  command  line  option to change the default
priority, but decided not to.  Maybe in the next release.

Future upgrades

May or may not occur.   If  they  do,  we  might  go shareware...how many
people are interested?

I would add Workbench  startup,  with  an  Intuition Requester that would
display all the current tasks in the system and allow you to pick the one
you wanted - this in lieu of a  command  line argument.  Might also add a
pull-down menu to let you change  tasks  on the fly.  Currently, you must
close StackWatch  and  restart  it  to  change  tasks.   Of  course,  the
capability to change priorities would be nice.