Eclipse Memory Analyzer 1.4.0 Release Review

Type
Release
State
Successful
End Date of the Review Period

Reviews run for a minimum of one week. The outcome of the review is decided on this date. This is the last day to make comments or ask questions about this review.

Release

1.4.0

Description

The 1.4.0 release contains bugfixes and small improvements:

  • Updated some of the queries to be able to inspect collections and strings in heap dumps from Java 8
  • The Leak Hunter report now has links to the queries used to create the report
  • OQL improvements (allow ranges when indexing arrays)
  • Improved undo for Notes View and OQL Pane
  • Fixed issues with opening huge dumps



     
API Certification

The project leadership certifies that the APIs in this release are "Eclipse Quality".

Architectural Issues

No architectural issues.

Architecture is settled and performs well on multi-GB heap dumps.

MAT provides a set of extension points for adding additional analysis capabilities on top of the ones built into the tool.

Security Issues

No known security issues

Non-Code Aspects

Documentation

• Eclipse Help Center documentation is generated using DITA

• Online documentation via:

• Eclipse Info Center (will be uploaded also for Kepler)

• WIKI http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/MemoryAnalyzer

• Webinars http://live.eclipse.org/node/520, http://live.eclipse.org/node/939

• Cheat sheets

• “Extending MAT Guide” (in Wiki): http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php?title=MemoryAnalyzer/Contributor_Reference#Writing_plugins_for_the_Memory_Analyzer



Localisation/Externalization - Strings are externalized

 

Usability Details

• The Memory Analyzer tool is very helpful for troubleshooting of OutOfMemoryErrors. It can be also used proactively to analyze and reduce memory consumption.

• The tool provides rich and responsive UI. The User Interface Guidlines have been followed.

• The sheer number of heap inspections can be overwhelming for a novice user. To reduce complexity so called "suspects" analysis is provided, which provides a summary of potential problems found in the heap dump with a single click.

 

End of Life
  • No features are removed
  • No API has been deprecated / removed

     
Standards
  • MAT can work with the following heap dumps:
    • HPROF binary dumps
    • IBM PHD dumps
    • IBM System dumps
    • Further parsers can be provided using via extension point
  • MAT Requires
    • Execution Environment J2SE-1.5
    • Eclipse Platform 3.4 – 3.8, 4.2-
    • BIRT Chart Runtime 2.3.0 or higher

       
Communities

Contributors and committers

• Committers (total number 6): 4 from SAP, 2 from IBM

• Active Committers are 2: 1 from SAP, 1 from IBM



Adopters

• Integrated into SAP NetWeaverCE

• Integrated into IBM Support Assistant

• Some additional extensions to MAT being written as shown by questions on the forum



Users

• A large user community (for the special niche of the tool)

• The standalone RCP application has over 4000 downloads per week

• Part of Eclipse simultaneous release update site (downloads not counted)

• Forums and Bugzilla used as communication channel

 

This release is part of Luna