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[8.5.2] image startup delay

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Richard Sargent

[8.5.2] image startup delay

Administrator

I have an 8.5.2 development image which has a long, CPU-bound delay while starting up. It uses 100% cpu for about a minute, after displaying only the splash screen and the Transcript. It then displays the rest of the development windows I saved with the image. The cpu utilization has dropped to normal low levels by this point.

Can anyone recommend strategies for diagnosing what it is doing during this delay?

Thanks,
Richard

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dmacq

Re: [8.5.2] image startup delay

Hi Richard,

The first thing that comes to mind is that you may have saved your images with a lot of processes running.

To check this, from the Transcript select Tools -> Open Debugger. Then in the debugger window, select Processes -> Debug Other. Select everything in the list box that pops up, then do Processes -> Terminate. You should have only two or three left.
Save your image.

hth,

Donald [|]

On Wednesday, January 22, 2014 12:38:48 PM UTC-5, Richard Sargent wrote:

I have an 8.5.2 development image which has a long, CPU-bound delay while starting up. It uses 100% cpu for about a minute, after displaying only the splash screen and the Transcript. It then displays the rest of the development windows I saved with the image. The cpu utilization has dropped to normal low levels by this point.

Can anyone recommend strategies for diagnosing what it is doing during this delay?

Thanks,
Richard

Richard Sargent

Re: [8.5.2] image startup delay

Administrator

On Wednesday, January 22, 2014 11:34:43 AM UTC-8, Donald MacQueen wrote:

The first thing that comes to mind is that you may have saved your images with a lot of processes running.

Thanks for that suggestion. It was a good one, but not my situation.
I have one extra process running. It should be a light-weight, but perhaps not. I will check it out.

Richard Sargent

Re: [8.5.2] image startup delay

Administrator

On Wednesday, January 22, 2014 11:45:46 AM UTC-8, Richard Sargent wrote:

On Wednesday, January 22, 2014 11:34:43 AM UTC-8, Donald MacQueen wrote:
The first thing that comes to mind is that you may have saved your images with a lot of processes running.

Thanks for that suggestion. It was a good one, but not my situation.
I have one extra process running. It should be a light-weight, but perhaps not. I will check it out.

I killed that extra process and saved my image. It made no difference to the startup delay.

I am considering wrapping the profiler around the system startup, but that's rather brutish.
Any better suggestions? Or any suggestions about exactly what to profile?

Louis LaBrunda

Re: [8.5.2] image startup delay

Hi Richard,

If you just want to fix things and don't care about learning the cause, try: "Options>Clean Up Image" from the VisualAge Organizer window. Also, you could start with a clean image and load everything you want.

I generally create two configuration maps for each program I am building. One defines the load for the XD packaged image and one for development. I keep the image in a separate folder for each program. After I have been debugging in development for a while and things have gotten kind of messy/dirty and I am ready to version things, I version them, copy a fresh image to the programs folder, start up VA Smalltalk and load the development configuration map. From there I can package the XD image and know everything is nice and clean.

Lou

Richard Sargent

Re: [8.5.2] image startup delay

Administrator

On Wednesday, January 22, 2014 1:50:05 PM UTC-8, Louis LaBrunda wrote:

If you just want to fix things and don't care about learning the cause, try: "Options>Clean Up Image" from the VisualAge Organizer window. Also, you could start with a clean image and load everything you want.

Thanks, Lou. I will keep the Clean Up Image option in mind. As for starting clean, I am in the middle of a development effort and versioning off stuff would cause more trouble than this problem is presently worth.

And I admit to a fundamental passion about understanding why things misbehave. :-)

Richard Sargent

Re: [8.5.2] image startup delay

Administrator

In reply to this post by Richard Sargent

Well, I found it. Initializing a number of large collections which used Object's #addDependent: method. Added a 'dependents' instance variable and related behaviours to the appropriate classes.

On Wednesday, January 22, 2014 9:38:48 AM UTC-8, Richard Sargent wrote:

I have an 8.5.2 development image which has a long, CPU-bound delay while starting up. It uses 100% cpu for about a minute, after displaying only the splash screen and the Transcript. It then displays the rest of the development windows I saved with the image. The cpu utilization has dropped to normal low levels by this point.

Can anyone recommend strategies for diagnosing what it is doing during this delay?

Thanks,
Richard