Execution History Visualization in IDE Profiling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current integrated development environments (IDEs) lack effective visualization tools for displaying the execution history of computer programs, making it difficult for developers to understand the execution path and state changes of software applications during debugging.
Innovation Solution
A software application profiling environment that monitors and stores execution history information, displaying it within a graphical user interface alongside the computer program instructions, with visualizations such as execution paths, duration indications, and variable states, allowing for both static and dynamic visualizations that can be overlaid onto the program code.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional debugging methods are used in IDEs, then developers can step through program instructions, but it is difficult to understand the execution path and state changes without additional visualization tools
Solution Approach 1:
The patent adds a temporal dimension to traditional debugging by displaying execution history as a visual timeline alongside the source code. This allows developers to see not just the current state but the sequence of previous states, transforming linear step-by-step debugging into a multi-dimensional view that includes historical context.
Solution Approach 2:
The system automatically monitors and records execution history in the background during program execution, storing state information before the developer needs to analyze it. This preliminary capture of execution data eliminates the need for manual tracking and ensures complete execution history is available for review.
2Reliability
If execution history is monitored and stored, then complete execution path information is captured, but system resources and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The profiling environment integrates execution monitoring and history storage as self-service capabilities within the IDE itself, rather than requiring separate external tools. The system automatically instruments the program execution and manages its own data collection, reducing the need for additional complex infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a multi-functional profiling environment that combines source code display, execution monitoring, state storage, and historical replay capabilities into a single integrated system. This universal tool replaces multiple separate debugging utilities, managing complexity through consolidation rather than proliferation of components.
Data Source
AI summary
A software application profiling environment is provided, where the software application profiling environment monitors an execution of a software application, where a software application includes one or more computer programs. The software application profiling environment further stores execution history information for the one or more computer programs of the software application. The software application profiling environment further displays some or all of the computer program instructions of the computer program, and further displays a visualization of the stored execution history information. The visualization can be a static visualization or a dynamic visualization. Further, the visualization can be overlaid on top of the computer program instructions of the computer program.