Tool Mentor: Analyzing Runtime
Behavior Using Rational XDE Developer - .NET Edition
Purpose
This section provides links to additional information related to this tool mentor.
The steps in this tool mentor match those in the activity. Links to topics
in the Rational XDE online Help are marked with .
Overview
This tool mentor currently only covers how the Visual Trace capability, integrated
with Rational XDE, can help a developer analyze run-time behaviour. Note that
Visual Trace is not available in all Rational XDE configurations.
Visual Trace dynamically records the execution of an application to a trace
sequence diagram. A trace sequence diagram displays the flow of control of an
application in a sequence diagram format. A trace sequence diagram also provides
information on timing, threading, code coverage, and memory usage of the traced
application.
The following steps are performed in this tool mentor:
There is no Rational XDE specific guidance for this step.
The application you wish to trace must be built and executable
- Launch the Visual Trace Settings Wizard. See
.
- Select the classes in your application that you wish to include in the
trace
- Select whether you want to record from the beginning of the application
or manually control recording during the execution.
There is no Rational XDE specific guidance for this step.
Launch the application in either run or debug mode.
-
If you have selected to start recording from the beginning of the
application, a trace sequence diagram will be created and your application
will be traced.
-
If you selected manual control of recording, run the application to an appropriate point
(i.e. a pause waiting for user input, a breakpoint you set previously),
start Visual Trace recording, and a trace sequence diagram
will be recorded from that point.
The trace sequence diagram captures important run-time behavior that will
help you understand and debug your application.
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The trace sequence diagram accurately captures the flow of control and
helps you understand the application and identify potential problems.
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To further assist in debugging the application, the thread status bar
indicates the active threads during the run, timing information is
displayed on the diagram, function level code coverage is displayed, and
optionally memory usage is displayed.
- Trace sequence diagrams can be filtered and collapsed to include only relevant
information. See
.
There is no Rational XDE specific guidance for this step.
There is no Rational XDE specific guidance for this step.
Trace sequence diagrams can be converted into XDE Sequence Diagrams and stored
within XDE models. See
. Diagrams in XDE models can be published to html format. Also note that
diagrams can be copied from the Rational XDE software tool to Microsoft Word
and other programs.
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