Generating Performance Data through the User Interface

The main user interface is accessed through the Performance menu item:

The Snapshot menu items each generate different types of data:

• Snapshot - Process: Generates process specific data like CPU time, and Working Set.
• Snapshot - Machine: Generates machine wide information like total committed memory. (This currently only works on XP).
• Snapshot - Plug-ins: Generates information about the active plug-ins.

The Snapshot - All menu item is a convenience that is similar to selecting each of the above menu items, thus giving you as much information as available for this step. However this menu item produces less error information, and will not display the results in a dialog.

Creating Testcase Scripts

The approach is pretty straight forward. The test case should have enough detail such that a person can perform the initial setup and then run though all the steps in the test case. The test case should describe when snapshots need to be taken and what step number to use for the snapshot.

A variation of this approach is to use an automated tool, like abbot for SWT, to simulate the steps that a person would do.