The Object Visualizer is a tool that enables you to analyze object activity and interaction. With this tool, you can visualize objects in your application, which enables you to do the following:
These tools can help you understand your application in order to correct problems or improve performance. By analyzing the message traffic in your application, you can identify potential trouble spots or bottlenecks.
The Object Visualizer provides two views that you can use to visually analyze your application performance:
relationships between objects. The Cluster View measures the level of interaction between objects, visually arranging the objects to show which objects are closely related (based upon the amount of message traffic between them). You can use the Cluster View to analyze either classes or instances.
Note: This chapter describes the Object Visualizer as it appears in the base VisualAge for Smalltalk environment. When the Distributed Feature for IBM Smalltalk is loaded, the Object Visualizer has additional function. Please see the Distributed Feature User's Guide for a description of that additional function.