Run-time profiling of Algol 68-R programs using DIDYMUS and SCAMP

Brailsford, David F.; Foxley, E.; Mander, K. C.; Morgan, D. J.

Abstract

Information concerning the run-time behaviour of programs ("program profiling") can be of the greatest assistance in improving program efficiency. Two software devices have been developed for use on
ICL 1900 Series machines to provide such information.

DIDYMUS is probabilistic in approach and uses multi- tasking facilities to sample the instruction addresses used by a program at run time. It will work regardless of the source language of the program and matches the detected addresses against a loader map to produce a histogram.

SCAMP is restricted to profiling Algol 68-R programs, but provides deterministic information concerning those language constructs that are monitored. Procedure calls to appropriate counting routines are inserted into the source text in a pre-pass prior to compilation. The profile information is printed out at the end of the program run.

It has been found that these two approaches complement each other very effectively.

Citation

Brailsford, D. F., Foxley, E., Mander, K. C., & Morgan, D. J. (1977). Run-time profiling of Algol 68-R programs using DIDYMUS and SCAMP.

• Conference Name: 1977 Algol 68 Conference: ACM SIGPLAN Notices
• End Date: Mar 31, 1977
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 1977
• Deposit Date: Feb 7, 2006
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 9, 2007
• Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 6
• Keywords: run-time profiling, program profiling, run-time; debugging, Algol 68-R, George 3
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1025658