project-info/project-plan-8.0.xml - gerrit/www.eclipse.org/mat - Git at Google

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
 <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://www.eclipse.org/projects/project-plan.xsl"?>
 <plan plan-format="1.0" xmlns="http://www.eclipse.org/project/plan"
 	xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" name="Eclipse Memory Analyzer">
 	<release projectid="technology.mat" version="0.8" />
 	<introduction>
 		<html:div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
 			<p>The Memory Analyzer has a rich set of features to analyze heap dumps
 			from various VM vendors. The main focus is now on
 			<strong>growing the community</strong> around the tool and,
 			hopefully, eventually maturing from incubation.</p>

 			<p>The next step is releasing the currently available code base as
 			version <strong>0.7</strong>. The rationale is this: First of all,
 			we have external dependencies (the DTFJ Parser provided by IBM and
 			distributed via IBM's Alphaworks page) which require a stable version.
 			Secondly, we hope to increase community interest by providing
 			a released version.</p>

 			<p>This project plan is concerned with the development wave beyond
 			this initial 0.7 release.</p>
 		</html:div>
 	</introduction>
 	<release_deliverables>
 		<html:div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
 			The Memory Analyzer is delivered as
 			<ul>
 				<li>stand-along RCP version via Eclipse.Org download server.</li>
 				<li>feature to be installed into an Eclipse IDE installation using an update site.</li>
 			</ul>
 		</html:div>
 	</release_deliverables>
 	<release_milestones>
 		<preamble>
 			<html:div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
 				We plan to build and publish a stable version of the Memory Analyzer on a monthly basis.
 			</html:div>
 		</preamble>
 		<milestone date="11/15/2008" milestone="0.7">
 			<html:div>Tentative Release Date 0.7</html:div>
 		</milestone>
 		<milestone date="3/1/2009" milestone="0.8">
 			<html:div>Tentative Release Date 0.8</html:div>
 		</milestone>
 		<postamble />
 	</release_milestones>
 	<target_environments>
 		<html:div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
 			The Memory Analyzer requires Java 5 and runs on Eclipse 3.3 (Europa) and greater.
 			A stand-alone version is provided on the download server which is build with the latest
 			available platform (currently Eclipse 3.4 Ganymede).
 		</html:div>
 		<internationalization>
 			<html:div>Currently, the Memory Analyzer is not prepared to be translated. String constants
 			are not yet externalized into resource bundles.</html:div>
 		</internationalization>
 	</target_environments>
 	<compatibility_with_previous_releases>
 		<html:div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Binary and source compatibility is expected for the Snapshot and Parser API.</html:div>
 	</compatibility_with_previous_releases>
 	<themes_and_priorities>
 		<preamble />
 		<theme name="Comparing Heap Dumps">
 			<description>
 				<html:div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
 					<p>A heap dump contains a snapshot of the Java heap at one point in time.
 						Every address is uniquely identified by its address. However, the addresses
 						do not remain stable because the Garbage Collector is constantly moving
 						objects around and thereby changing their addresses. Therefore only aggregates
 						can be compared easily.</p>
 					<ul>
 						<li><em>Compare Multiple Heap Dumps (not only two) on the Basis
 							of the Class Histogram, Class Loader Histogram and Packages.</em><br />
 							The idea is to create a wizard which guides the user step-by-step
 							from the selection of the heap dumps to the results.
 						</li>
 						<li><em>Research Ways to Detect Leak Suspects Based on Comparing Heap Dumps.</em><br />
 							This is a rather open topic. The idea is to find growing structures
 							like maps which could indicate a leak suspect.
 						</li>
 					</ul>
 				</html:div>
 			</description>
 		</theme>
 		<theme name="Usability Features">
 			<description>
 				<html:div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
 					<p>Usability of the Memory Analyzer is important in order to attract new user groups.</p>
 					<ul>
 						<li><em>Interactively Acquire Heap Dumps. (<a
 					href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=229449">229449</a>)</em><br />
 							The latest virtual machines provide interfaces to acquire a heap dump on demand. For example,
 							Sun Java 6 VM provides a JMX extension, on Unix platforms the command-line utility jmap is
 							available. This feature adds a wizard to acquire a heap dump from a virtual machine
 							running on the local computer. The goal is to ease interactive analysis of an application
 							and reduce the time for novices to get started.
 						</li>
 						<li><em>Extend OQL to Handle Query Commands.</em><br />
 							Reports like the component report aggregate a lot of data into a single HTML page.
 							To be able to drill down, it must be possible to go back to the heap dump
 							and retrieve the objects. This requires an extension to the OQL to
 							execute queries and a mechanism identify rows / tree nodes from the result.
 						</li>
 						<li><em>Equinox OSGi Bundle Explorer</em><br />
 							It should be possible to extract from the heap dump the state of the Equinox
 							runtime: bundles and their status, dependencies, registered and used services,
 							extension points etc. For a live system, this is available via the Plug-In Registry
 							Viewer (if installed), in the post-mortem case the MAT can help.
 						</li>
 					</ul>
 				</html:div>
 			</description>
 		</theme>
 		<theme name="Documentation Improvement">
 			<description>
 				<html:div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
 					<p>The Memory Analyzer documentation is available as (a) help plug-in, (b) WIKI pages
 					and (c) blog postings for special topics. The documentation covers a broad range
 					of topics, but we acknowledge that it is often brief and not easily accessible
 					to non-domain experts.</p>
 					<ul>
 						<li><em>Restructure the documentation along tasks.</em><br />
 							The documentation should concentrate on tasks ("find leaks" or "reduce footprint")
 							instead of features. This should reduce the learning curve of new users.
 						</li>
 						<li><em>Improve the context help available for heap dump inspections.</em><br />
 							Today MAT displays a help button if a particular inspection provides context help.
 							However, right now help is only available for immediate dominators and the
 							component report. More context help is needed.
 						</li>
 						<li><em>Publish the Help Plug-in contents on the Eclipse.Org Page.</em><br />
 							Additionally delivering the help content via web pages will make them searchable
 							via search engines like Google. This should attract new users to the tool.
 						</li>
 					</ul>
 				</html:div>
 			</description>
 		</theme>
 		<theme name="Building A Community">
 			<description>
 				<html:div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
 					<p>A vibrant community is essential for the long term health of any project.
 					The Memory Analyzer is in a difficult position, because it is a niche tool
 					which not only requires some significant domain knowledge about memory analysis
 					but also is utilized only sporadically during the development of big applications.
 					</p>
 					<ul>
 						<li>Participate in the Galileo Simultaneous Release.</li>
 						<li>Demo the Memory Analyzer at the Eclipse Summit Europe.</li>
 						<li>Be responsive to questions posted to the newsgroup and Bugzilla reports.</li>
 						<li>Regularly blog about memory related topics.</li>
 					</ul>
 				</html:div>
 			</description>
 		</theme>
 	</themes_and_priorities>
 </plan>
	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
	<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://www.eclipse.org/projects/project-plan.xsl"?>
	<plan plan-format="1.0" xmlns="http://www.eclipse.org/project/plan"
	xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" name="Eclipse Memory Analyzer">
	<release projectid="technology.mat" version="0.8" />
	<introduction>
	<html:div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
	<p>The Memory Analyzer has a rich set of features to analyze heap dumps
	from various VM vendors. The main focus is now on
	<strong>growing the community</strong> around the tool and,
	hopefully, eventually maturing from incubation.</p>

	<p>The next step is releasing the currently available code base as
	version <strong>0.7</strong>. The rationale is this: First of all,
	we have external dependencies (the DTFJ Parser provided by IBM and
	distributed via IBM's Alphaworks page) which require a stable version.
	Secondly, we hope to increase community interest by providing
	a released version.</p>

	<p>This project plan is concerned with the development wave beyond
	this initial 0.7 release.</p>
	</html:div>
	</introduction>
	<release_deliverables>
	<html:div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
	The Memory Analyzer is delivered as
	<ul>
	<li>stand-along RCP version via Eclipse.Org download server.</li>
	<li>feature to be installed into an Eclipse IDE installation using an update site.</li>
	</ul>
	</html:div>
	</release_deliverables>
	<release_milestones>
	<preamble>
	<html:div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
	We plan to build and publish a stable version of the Memory Analyzer on a monthly basis.
	</html:div>
	</preamble>
	<milestone date="11/15/2008" milestone="0.7">
	<html:div>Tentative Release Date 0.7</html:div>
	</milestone>
	<milestone date="3/1/2009" milestone="0.8">
	<html:div>Tentative Release Date 0.8</html:div>
	</milestone>
	<postamble />
	</release_milestones>
	<target_environments>
	<html:div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
	The Memory Analyzer requires Java 5 and runs on Eclipse 3.3 (Europa) and greater.
	A stand-alone version is provided on the download server which is build with the latest
	available platform (currently Eclipse 3.4 Ganymede).
	</html:div>
	<internationalization>
	<html:div>Currently, the Memory Analyzer is not prepared to be translated. String constants
	are not yet externalized into resource bundles.</html:div>
	</internationalization>
	</target_environments>
	<compatibility_with_previous_releases>
	<html:div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Binary and source compatibility is expected for the Snapshot and Parser API.</html:div>
	</compatibility_with_previous_releases>
	<themes_and_priorities>
	<preamble />
	<theme name="Comparing Heap Dumps">
	<description>
	<html:div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
	<p>A heap dump contains a snapshot of the Java heap at one point in time.
	Every address is uniquely identified by its address. However, the addresses
	do not remain stable because the Garbage Collector is constantly moving
	objects around and thereby changing their addresses. Therefore only aggregates
	can be compared easily.</p>
	<ul>
	<li><em>Compare Multiple Heap Dumps (not only two) on the Basis
	of the Class Histogram, Class Loader Histogram and Packages.</em><br />
	The idea is to create a wizard which guides the user step-by-step
	from the selection of the heap dumps to the results.
	</li>
	<li><em>Research Ways to Detect Leak Suspects Based on Comparing Heap Dumps.</em><br />
	This is a rather open topic. The idea is to find growing structures
	like maps which could indicate a leak suspect.
	</li>
	</ul>
	</html:div>
	</description>
	</theme>
	<theme name="Usability Features">
	<description>
	<html:div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
	<p>Usability of the Memory Analyzer is important in order to attract new user groups.</p>
	<ul>
	<li><em>Interactively Acquire Heap Dumps. (<a
	href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=229449">229449</a>)</em><br />
	The latest virtual machines provide interfaces to acquire a heap dump on demand. For example,
	Sun Java 6 VM provides a JMX extension, on Unix platforms the command-line utility jmap is
	available. This feature adds a wizard to acquire a heap dump from a virtual machine
	running on the local computer. The goal is to ease interactive analysis of an application
	and reduce the time for novices to get started.
	</li>
	<li><em>Extend OQL to Handle Query Commands.</em><br />
	Reports like the component report aggregate a lot of data into a single HTML page.
	To be able to drill down, it must be possible to go back to the heap dump
	and retrieve the objects. This requires an extension to the OQL to
	execute queries and a mechanism identify rows / tree nodes from the result.
	</li>
	<li><em>Equinox OSGi Bundle Explorer</em><br />
	It should be possible to extract from the heap dump the state of the Equinox
	runtime: bundles and their status, dependencies, registered and used services,
	extension points etc. For a live system, this is available via the Plug-In Registry
	Viewer (if installed), in the post-mortem case the MAT can help.
	</li>
	</ul>
	</html:div>
	</description>
	</theme>
	<theme name="Documentation Improvement">
	<description>
	<html:div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
	<p>The Memory Analyzer documentation is available as (a) help plug-in, (b) WIKI pages
	and (c) blog postings for special topics. The documentation covers a broad range
	of topics, but we acknowledge that it is often brief and not easily accessible
	to non-domain experts.</p>
	<ul>
	<li><em>Restructure the documentation along tasks.</em><br />
	The documentation should concentrate on tasks ("find leaks" or "reduce footprint")
	instead of features. This should reduce the learning curve of new users.
	</li>
	<li><em>Improve the context help available for heap dump inspections.</em><br />
	Today MAT displays a help button if a particular inspection provides context help.
	However, right now help is only available for immediate dominators and the
	component report. More context help is needed.
	</li>
	<li><em>Publish the Help Plug-in contents on the Eclipse.Org Page.</em><br />
	Additionally delivering the help content via web pages will make them searchable
	via search engines like Google. This should attract new users to the tool.
	</li>
	</ul>
	</html:div>
	</description>
	</theme>
	<theme name="Building A Community">
	<description>
	<html:div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
	<p>A vibrant community is essential for the long term health of any project.
	The Memory Analyzer is in a difficult position, because it is a niche tool
	which not only requires some significant domain knowledge about memory analysis
	but also is utilized only sporadically during the development of big applications.
	</p>
	<ul>
	<li>Participate in the Galileo Simultaneous Release.</li>
	<li>Demo the Memory Analyzer at the Eclipse Summit Europe.</li>
	<li>Be responsive to questions posted to the newsgroup and Bugzilla reports.</li>
	<li>Regularly blog about memory related topics.</li>
	</ul>
	</html:div>
	</description>
	</theme>
	</themes_and_priorities>
	</plan>