Symbian has announced its Symbian Analysis Workbench (SAW), a pre-packaged set of Eclipse-based profiling tools for optimizing Symbian C++ software via graphical views integrated into the Carbide C++ development environment. The Symbian Developer Network (SDN++) hosts an Eclipse download service which makes it possible to install SAW from within Carbide.c++.
SAW offers analysis, profiling and target management tools in a suite, allowing developers to understand software behavior using reports for trace events, resource usage and system behaviour within a single workspace.
SAW complements commercial third-party tools by providing Symbian OS-specific analysis to solve hard-to-find defects. It includes 'Trace Event Viewer', 'CPU Profiler', 'Memory Usage Reporter', 'Thread State Reporter' and 'Target Management' to optimise complex code.
- The 'Trace Event Viewer' is a text-based display, compatible with output from the Symbian OS Unified Trace Framework. Developers can use the 'trace event viewer' to understand the status of their software and to see a complete record of all events. The feature complements the Symbian Analysis Workbench graphical reporting tools.
- The 'CPU Profiler Viewer' visualises processor activity to identify the hot spots and bottlenecks in the software that are using the most processor cycles. The profiler uses debug symbolic data and ROM build logs to resolve function names in the display. This gives the developer an active view of the most active functions for a more detailed inspection.
- SAW's 'Memory Reporter Viewer' shows memory usage over time by heap, executable and function to optimise software. Using the reporter, developers can find memory leaks, see peak memory usage and understand complex memory problems, such as fragmentation.
- The 'Thread State Viewer' allows developers to visualise thread behaviour without interrupting program execution by showing when a thread state is created and destroyed, and its transition over time. This helps developers understand the relationship between executing threads, which are often difficult to determine using conventional debugging tools.
- 'Target Management' allows a developer to control the device from the desktop by providing an FTP agent for file management, and a TelNet agent for command execution.
SAW v1.0 supports Symbian OS v9.4 and all forthcoming versions.
