Eclipse Memory Analyzer 1.5.0 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.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Project: 
Eclipse Memory Analyzer
Release: 

1.5.0

Description: 

The 1.5.0 release contains some usability improvements:

  • Select via preferences the units in which sizes are displayed, e.g. B, MB, GB or "smart"
  • Support Ctrl+C on the Heap Dump History table of recently opened heapdumps to be able to quickly copy the full path of recently opened dump(s) to the clipboard
  • Export the code used to extract content and certain properties of collection objects as an API
New & Noteworthy URL: 
New and Noteworthy
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 have been 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 about 4500 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 Mars.