Last Update of this page: September/23/2006

Action controlled measurement:
Measurement can be switched on and off dynamically by entering and finishing a procedure or a function. This can be activated user friendly by a selection form (for fast changing the activation points), by special comments and by API-calls in the source files (if permanently the same points shall be used for a long period).

All-in-one-profiling:
With one profiling session the number of calls for a method (call count profiling), the average runtime of a method (function profiling),  function coverage profiling and emulation profiling can be performed. When developing ProDelphi(Net), the philosophy was to develop a high precision profiling tool (thats why it is neither a sampling  nor a machine code instrumenting profiler) and to produce a minimum of overhead (that's why there is no line profiling mode). See also Profiler type.

Call graphs:
A graph shows by who a procedure is called and which procedure it is calling. It also shows how often this happened an the time consumed when processing these calls. By clicking on the procedure symbol a quick following the execution path of the application as well as opening the approrpriate source file in the editor is possible.

Command line:
Profiling from command line is possible.

Compiler versions:
ProDelphi.Net supports Delphi 8, 2005, 2006 and Turbo Delphi  for .Net.

Conditional compilation:
Fully supported. Compiler symbols and switches are read from the compilers project file.

Also symbols and switches in the source file are processed. They are valid for the processed file and included files only.

Coverage profiling:
A browser can display all methods which were not called. (For a line-by-line coverage tool, have a look at my link page).

Cross platform profiling:
ProDelphi.Net can read units that have been developped under Kylix (the Linux version of Delphi). It can handle VCL applications as well as WinForm applications.

Customer suggestions:
Many customer suggestions have been implemented for ProDelphi and are included in ProDelphi.Net.

Cyclic storage of measurement results:
Measurements can be stored cyclically (activated by online operation window). With the viewer it can be scrolled through the different measurements.

Documentation:
ProDelphi.Net comes with a real User Guide (and not with slim online help).

Emulation profiling:
The measured results can be recalculated for a faster or slower PC. So it's e.g. not necessary to have a customers PC for the development process. By entering a speed constant and the number of MHz'es the other PC can be emulated. Of course the results are not as accurate as they are with measuring on the original equipment.

Exclusion of parts of the program from measurement:

Directories:

• Insert the directory to be excluded into the exclude list (optonally with all subdirectories)
  

• Set the write protection for the units file
• Insert a profiler statement at the start of the unit file
• Files in or below the Delphi LIB and SOURCE directories are always excluded, also files in and below the Windows directory.

• Insert a profiler statement before and after the part, that shall not be measured.

• Procedures, that are called at least 10 times and consume less than 1µs per call, can automatically be excluded from measurement.

Granularity:
ProDelphi.Net measures in CPU-cycles. The smallest measurable unit is 1 CPU-cycle. This means that on a Pentium with 1000 MHz the smallest measurable duration is 0.001 µs = 1ns.

Handling of idle times:
Idle times produced by some Windows-API calls are not measured, also idle times of some Delphi calls. See list of handled functions in the manual.

Hardware:
ProDelphi.Net supports Pentium and Pentium compatible processors.
It was tested on following AMD processors: K6/2, Athlon
It was tested on following Intel processors: Pentium IV and XEON.
For the profiling session 32 MB RAM is used additionally by ProDelphi.Net.

History function:
ProDelphi.Net comes with a built-in history function. The viewer shows by a colored grid, which functions got faster and which got slower since the last storing of results into the history file. By a mouse click on a result line of the viewers grid, the time from the history file is displayed for the selected procedure. Multiple history files can be stored.

History of ProDelphi:
ProDelphi.Net originates from ProDelphi. Release 1 of ProDelphi was issued 9/97, Release 3.1 with granularity of 1 CPU cycle published 5/98 on Torry's Delphi pages. Permanent improvement since then, many customer suggestions implemented. ProDelphi.Net release 1.0 was distributetd first with Delphi 8 for .Net companion CD.

Industrial approvement:
ProDelphi was first used to optimize the SIEMENS - SCADA-system VICOS P500 for the projects Metro Guang Zhou,  Shen Zhen and Sixth Railways in China. Other projects followed later (e.g. Melbourne).

Integration into the Delphi IDE:
If ProDelphi.Net is installed with the setup program, it is automatically integrated into the Delphi tools menu. Also an interface to Delphi is installed, so that a unit can be opened in Delphi by clicking with the mouse into the viewer window of ProDelphi.Net. The editor will display the measured procedure after that..

Libraries:
In the professional mode the user part of libraries can be profiled.

Limitations:
There are no limitations regarding size or accuracy: Even the smallest procedures are measured accurate, there is no minimum size required for a procedure to be measured.

Line profiling:
Line profiling is not supported. This has two reasons: Counting runtimes for lines changes the instruction processing of the CPU so much, that no useful results can be expected. Counting runtime for lines also slows down a program too much.

Local Procedures:
Can optionally be excluded from measurement..

Measuring parts of procedures:
By special comments extra measurement points inside procedures can be defined.

Measuring runtimes in DLL's:
Fully supported. Program and DLL can be measured simultaneously.

Measurement accuracy:
The measurement overhead is automatically removed from the measured times. A sophisticated algorithm calculates the runtime used for measurement at initialization time. Nested function calls are no problem for ProDelphi.Net.

Measurement results:
The measured durations are displayed either in CPU-Cycles or in a variable time format. Following time formats are automatically selected:

• 0.000 . . . 999.999 µs or
• 1.000 . . . 999.999 ms or
• 1.000 . . . 59.999 sec or
• 1.000 . . . 59.999 min or
• 1.000 . . . 99.999 h

Multiple profiling directories:
Fully supported. ProDelphi.Net reads the project file of Delphi and automatically scans all directories in the search path + the directory of the DPR-file.

Online operating the measurement:
Measurement can be switched on and off at the programs runtime, also results can be stored online.

Operating systems:
ProDelphi.Net is compatible to Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003. All functions are available on both platforms.

Optimization option:
The optimization of the Delphi compiler is automatically deactivated if the user forgets this. This guaranties high measurement accuracy.

Overhead:
Measurement of runtime costs measurement overhead. This is another point (like accuracy) where ProDelphi.Net shows its outstanding quality: by a very low measurement overhead. All measurement routines are extremely optimized.

Printing reports:
The measurement results can be printed on any Windows printer (inclusive graphics). The report can either be printed in full color mode or in color save mode (black, absolutely necessary parts in color, due to the high costs for color ink cartridges).

Professional version:
See upgrade to professional version.
(See also 'Differences between Freeware- and Professional Version').

Profiler type:
ProDelphi.Net is a source code instrumenting profiler. Source instrumenting versus machine code instrumenting has the advantage, that the normal instruction flow is nearly identical as without profiling. This is one of the reasons for ProDelphi's outstanding accuaracy.

Another advantage of a source instrumenting profiler is, that idle times (caused e.g. by opening a message box) can be handled. Before calling the Windows- or VCL-function, the measurement is deactivated.
The only disadvantage of a source instrumenting profiler is that the source files are changed by the vaccination (instrumentation) process. To avoid the risk of impacting the sources, they should be saved before.

Sampling profilers: with a low sampling rate small procedures can not be measured, with a high sampling rate the profiled program has to be interrupted very often, what means, that the runtime behaviour of the tested program is changed very much. Sampling profilers also cannot handle idle times.

Programming-API:
Measurement can be switched on and off at runtime. Intermediate results can be stored on disk.

Security:
ProDelphi.Net inserts statements into the source files. If this process has a bug or in case of power failure, the sources might be destroyed. It is strongly recommended to save all source code files before profiling (e.g. by WinZip).

Setup:
ProDelphi.Net is delivered with a easy to use setup program. It copies all files into the appropriate directories, integrates ProDelphi into the Delphi tools menu and creates an entry in the Windows list of programs (Start menu / Programs).

Supported Delphi for .Net versions:
Delphi 8, 2005, 2006 and Turbo Delphi.

Supported libraries:
VCL and WinForms.

Switching off of all measurement:
Simply done by deleting a compiler symbol and recompilation.

Threads:
ProDelphi.Net has special settings for single threaded applications (low overhead, extremly accurate) and for multi threaded applications (medium overhead, medium accurate). A special option allows to exclusively measure the main thread only (Professional version only).

Upgrading to Professional Version:
If you need ProDelphi.Net for a larger project and 20 measured procedures are not enough for you, you can order the Professional Version via ShareIt registration service.

Update of Professional Version:
Updates due to bugfixes are free.
Upgrades due to new versions of Delphi or new features of ProDelphi.Net are available for 15.- €.

Viewing of measurement results:
Results can be either displayed in CPU-cycles or in a variable time format. On a pentium with 500 MHz the smallest time unit is 0.002µs.
ProDelphi.Net has TWO possibilities of viewing the measured runtimes:

• Built-in viewer and browser (navigator).

The complete results can be sorted using different criteria.
Procedures which consume the most CPU-cycles or are called most often are additionally prefiltered and sorted.
In professional mode besides average runtimes also minimum and maximum times can be viewed.
A browser can be used to quickly find a certain method, or to find out which method was not called.
Text search for units, classes or methods is available.
Caller / Call graph (see screen shot).


• Data base export.

Differences between Freeware- and Professional Version:

• In the Freeware Version (for small projects and private use) up to 20 methods can be measured.
• In the Professional Version (for large projects and industry use) up to 64000 methods can be measured.
• In the Professional Version additionally the user part of libraries can be profiled.
• In the Professional Version additionally besides average runtimes also minimum and maximum runtimes can be evaluated.
• In the Professional Version additionally optionally the file date is not changed by profiling.