How to identify moment something executed in Flame graph in DevTools? - performance

I'm using React 16 (Fiber engine) and need to see/identify specific moment in Main thread section to see what is happening after it.
Thus I come up with idea to put some code that will create some spike there and will enable me to see exact spot on the graph where something has started to happen.
How to identify moment something executed in Flame graph in DevTools?

You may call some named function with fancy name and find it with Ctrl/Cmd+F there.

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React spending 100ms on mixins, even though my app doesn't have any

My React app has become incredibly laggy, and I'm trying to find (and destroy) the bottlenecks. The app updates every 10 seconds. And right now, that update is taking >100ms, which is too long.
When I went to record a timeline with the Chrome dev tools, I found that something called "Mixin.perform" was taking 107 ms. Screenshot attached.
This part confused me. Normally, I'd aim to fix whatever appears to be taking the longest. But my app doesn't have any mixins, that I know of at least. It's all written in ES6, so mixins aren't even possible.
I do use some third party components, so maybe it comes from one of those - is there any way I could tell which mixins are slowing things down? Or is there a different explanation?
The Mixin object is part of the React source code: https://github.com/facebook/react/blob/master/src/shared/utils/Transaction.js#L77
There is some description there as to what it's for. I understand it to mean it that is helping preserve state during reconciliation, the technique React uses to make rendering React applications performant enough for production use, and not just theoretically speaking.
You can read about reconciliation here:
https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/reconciliation.html
It's likely that many of your components are receiving props changes, causing re-renders, which will bubble down to their children. At the end of this cycle, React will do its thing and will call Mixin functions to help with reconciliation.
You can try to add some logging information in componentWillReceiveProps or shouldComponentUpdate to compare nextProps with this.props. There may be times when you want to return false in shouldComponentUpdate, which will reduce the amount of work React core has to do. You may also find components are receiving new props many more times then you expect.
This article helps somewhat when trying to understand why components are updating when you think they should not be:
https://facebook.github.io/react/blog/2016/01/08/A-implies-B-does-not-imply-B-implies-A.html
Good luck!

Extend and customize a performance monitor

.NET has several built in Perfmons, and I would like to know is it possible to extend one of the built in ones and add custom functionality.
More specifically, I would like to take RateOfCountsPerSecond32 and make it be something such as RateOfCountsPerMinute. Basically I would like to be able to monitor the average number of events that happen in a given time, but longer than a second.
Is extending the right idea? If so does anyone have a quick syntax example of how it can be done? I have read that it can be done but documentation is super poor on the subject. Or is there a better way to go about this entirely, very open to suggestions.
Thanks for any help,

the best or speedest way to understand uncommented and complex project [closed]

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I have complex project without comments. The project is programed in Java but have more than one main class, use several .txt files like a template and use several .bat files. I don't know where to start and how to start discovering the project, because I need to make some changes in that project.
As with others I say this is a slow process.
However having done this in the past many times, this is my methodology:
Identify as many requirements that the code fulfils. This may give you the some reasons as to why certain things are the way they are when you look deeper. A common way of finding these is look for any tests that be available. The automated ones are best, but usually they're as missing as the comments.
Find the entry points to the code. These will give you places where you can poke the code to see how different inputs affect the flow. Common entry points are Code Loading 'Main' type functions, service interfaces, web page post backs etc..
Diagram the code. Look for tools that can build black/white box pictures of the code. For me this invaluable. I have on occasion printed out large listings and attacked then with markers and rulers. You're aim to create your own flow chart (mental or other wise) of the code flow.
Using the above (iteratively) build a set of outputs to the code that you think should occur, and add to these the outputs you may already know about such as logs, data files, database writes etc..
Finally if you have time, create some manual tests though preferably in automated test harnesses to verify the above. This where I start to involve the debugger to see detail in the code.
This methodology usually gives me confidence to make changes.
Note this is iterative process and can be done with portions of the code or overall as you see fit. I usually favour a top down approach to start with and then as I gain some insight I drill down till details become overwhelming and then I repeat. However this is just because my mind works in this way - you may be different. Good luck.
Find the main Main class. The starting point.
Start drawing a picture of the classes and the objects they own and the external entities they reference.
Follow all the branches until you can find a logical ending.
I've used UML reverse engineering tools in the past and while a visual picture is good, stepping through the code has always been the hardest and yet best methodology for me.
And, as you step through each piece you can add in your own comments..
I usually start with doxygen, turning on every extracting option (especially EXTRACT_ALL and EXTRACT_PRIVATE), and enable the SOURCE_BROWSER, HAVE_DOT, CALL_GRAPH and CALLER_GRAPH options (you also need to have dot installed). This gives good view of the software. For every function the calls are displayed and linked in a graph, also the sources are linked from there.
While doxygen is intended for C and C++, it also works with Java sources (set the OPTIMIZE_OUTPUT_JAVA option).
Auch. I'm afraid there is no speedy way to do this. Comment out a line (or two) -> test -> see what breaks. You could also put break statements here and there and run the debugger. That should give you some indication how you got there (ie. what the hierarchy between the classes is).
Hopefully the original developers used some patterns that you can recognize and make notes. Make lots of notes of everything. Start by trying to understand the high level structure and work down from there.
Be prepared to spend endless hours not understanding what the thing is doing.
Speak to the client and try to understand what the project is for, and what are all the things that it does. Someone somewhere had to put in some requirements for the stuff that's in there, if only in an email.
I would try to find the first entry point in the code closest to where you suspect you'll need to start making your changes, set a breakpoint, and start debugging. Check out the contents of local variables and work your way deeper as you get to become familiar with whats going on. Then, when you have a basic understanding of the area of code you're going to be working with, start fiddling with some small changes. Test your understanding of it. Try diagramming what you see happening. If you can do that confidently, you'll be able to decide if you need to go back and continue learning more about the code, or if you know enough to get done what you need to get done.
A start is to use an automated uml modeling tool (if you use eclipse you can use a plug-gin), and start creating UML diagrams of the various classes to see how they are related in a high level and visualize the code. This has helped many times
If there are log files being generated, have a look at it to understand the flow from the starting point (main class). Otherwise, put debug statements to understand the flow.
Ya, that sounds like a pretty bad spot to be in.
I would say that the best way is to just walk through the program line for line. Try to grasp the big picture in the code, and write alot of notes, both on paper and in comments in the code.
I would say, a good approach would be to generate documentation using javadoc or doxygen's class diagram feature, then as you run the code traverse through the class diagrams generated using doxygen and see who calls what. This works wonderfully for me everytime i am working on such a project.
I completely agree to most of the answers posted.
I can add to use a development tool that reverse engineering the code and create a class diagram, to have an overall picture of what is involved.
Then you need patience. But you will be a stronger and smarter developer when you'll get through...
Good luck!
One of the best and first things to do is to try to build and run the code. It might sound a bit simplistic but the problem when you take over undocumented code is that you can't even build it and run it. When have no clue were to start.

What makes a JavaFx 1.2 Scene Graph Refresh?

My first question =). I'm writing a video game with a user interface written in JavaFx. The behavior is correct, but I'm having performance problems. I'm trying to figure out how to figure out what is queuing up the refreshes which are slowing down the app.
I've got a relatively complex Scene Graph that represents a hexagonal map. It scales so that you could have 100 or a 1000 hexagons in the map. As the number of hexagons grow the responsiveness of the gui decreases. I've used YourKit (a Java Profiler) to trace these delays to major redraw operations.
I've spent most of the night trying to figure out how to do two things and understand one thing:
1) Cause a CustomNode to print something to the console whenever it is painted. This would help me identify exactly when these paints are being queued.
2) Identify when a CustomNode is put on the repaint queued.
If I answered 1 and 2, I might be able to figure out what it is that is binding all these different nodes together. Is it possible that JavaFX only works through global refreshes (doubtful)?
JavaFX script is a powerful UI language but certain practices will kill performance. Best performance generally boils down to:
keeping the Scene Graph small
keeping use of bind to a minimum (you can look at using triggers instead which are more performant)
This blog post by Jim Weaver expands these points.
I'm not sure as to the specific answers to your questions. If you examine the 1.2.1 docs you might be able to find a point in the Node documentation that you can override and add println statements but I'm not sure it can be done. You could try posting on forums.sun.com
This is a partial post. I expect to expand it after I've done some more work. I wanted to put in what I've done to date so I don't forget.
I realized that I'd need to get my IDE running with a full compliment of the JavaFx 1.2 source. This would allow me to put break points into the core code to figure out what is going on. I decided to do this configuration on Eclipse for remote debugging. I'm developing my FX in Netbeans but am more comfortable with Eclipse so that's what I want to debug in if I can.
To get this info into Eclipse, I first made a project with the Java source that my code uses. I then added external Jars to the project. On my Mac, the Jars I linked to were in /Library/Frameworks/JavaFX.framework/Versions/1.2
Then I went searching for the Source to link to these Jars. Unfortunately, it's not available. I could find some of it in /Library/Frameworks/JavaFX.framework/Versions/1.2/src.zip.
I did some research and found that the only available option left was to install a Java Decompilier. I used this one because it was easy to install into Eclipse 3.4: http colon_ //java dot decompiler _dot free.fr/ (<-- Please forgive the psudo link, I'm limited because I'm new)
This is where I am now. I can navigate into the Core FX classes and believe I'll be able to set break points and begin real analysis. I'll update this post as I progress.
I found a helpful benchmarking tool:
If you run with the JVM arg:
-Djava.util.logging.config.file=/path/to/logging/file/logging.properties
And you've put the following args into the file referenced by that arg:
handlers = java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler
java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.level = ALL
java.util.logging.ConsoleHandler.formatter = java.util.logging.SimpleFormatter
com.sun.scenario.animation.fps.level = ALL
You'll get console output that includes your frame count per second. For FX 1.2 it wasn't working for me, but it appears to be working for 1.2.1 (which was released Sept. 9, 2009.) I don't have a Netbeans that runs 1.2.1 yet.
You may want to read this article.
http://fxexperience.com/2009/09/performance-improving-insertion-times/
Basically, insertions in to the scenegraph are slow and benefits can be seen by batching up inserts

Is midiOutPrepareHeader a quick call?

Does midiOutPrepareHeader, midiInPrepareHeader just setup some data fields, or does it do something that is more time intensive?
I am trying to decide whether to build and destroy the MIDIHDR's as needed, or to maintain a pool of them.
You really have only two ways to tell (without the Windows source):
1) Profile it. Depending on your findings for how long it takes, have a debug-only scoped timer that logs when it suddenly takes longer than what you think is acceptable for your application, or do your pool solution. Though the docs say not to modify the buffer once you call the prepare function, and it seems if you wanted to re-use it you may have to modify it. I'm not familiar enough with the docs to say one way or the other if your proposed solution would work.
2) Step through the assembly and see. Don't be afraid. Get the MSFT public symbols and see if it looks like it's just filling out fields or if it's doing something complicated.

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