Abstract: A technique for monitoring events generated by an object-oriented system comprises the steps/operations of: (i) monitoring events which describe executed operations associated with the object-oriented system; and (ii) applying one or more sequencing rules when reporting a subset of the monitored events, the one or more sequencing rules substantially ensuring consistent reporting of the subset of monitored events. Preferably, monitoring continues when event reporting is at least partially disabled. Further, the monitoring step/operation may include dividing the monitored events into categories. One category may include entity events, an entity event defining an existence status of a given event. Another category may include activity events, an activity event defining an operation associated with a given event.

Abstract: Methods are provided for extracting reference patterns in JAVA and depicting the same. The extracted and depicted reference patterns may be used to interactively and selectively explore data structures, and to identify and solve memory leaks. A method for extracting reference relationships among objects corresponding to a running program includes the step of designating a starting set of objects. The starting set of objects is partitioned into subsets of objects grouped by class. A recursive operation is applied to each of the starting subsets. The recursive operation includes the step of, given a subset of objects, identifying a second set of objects. The second set includes all objects that refer to at least one object in the subset when a direction of reference terminates at the starting set. Alternatively, the second set includes all objects that are referred to by at least one object in the subset when the direction of reference originates from the starting set.

Abstract: An improved method and system for visualizing an object-oriented program's execution in a manner that facilitates understanding, debugging, and tuning programs of arbitrary size and complexity by visually depicting a sequence of one or more messages to an object or between objects as a tree. Each node in the tree represents an object, and each edge represents a message between the objects. To manage the complexity of what is displayed, the user may elect to collapse subtrees so that they appear in abbreviated form. The user may expand collapsed subtrees so that they are visible in full. By selectively expanding and collapsing subtrees, the user can examine only those parts of the execution that are immediately relevant. The user may specify additional criteria for classifying subtrees, i.e., the conditions under which two subtrees are deemed equivalent. The system can then consolidate equivalent subtrees automatically, replacing them with a more general execution pattern that subsumes them all.

Abstract: During the execution of an object-oriented program, an execution model extracts information from events in an event stream to create a dictionary of (stored) "communication records." These communication records represent communications to or between objects. A client program permits a user to query the records of the dictionary to access information and gain a better understanding of the program's execution. Different dictionary structures for storing information can be used to represent the communication records for these communications. Moreover, in alternative preferred embodiments, the dictionary can be arranged in various hierarchical structures. By providing different dictionary structures, the invention is flexible enough to accommodate many types of user queries.

Abstract: A dynamic visual presentation animates how classes or objects send messages and relate to each other in an object-oriented program during the program's execution. The presentation depicts classes or objects as graphical nodes on a computer display. The relative proximity of these nodes varies to reflect a specific relationship between classes or objects: either communication, creation frequency, or aggregation. Communication between objects is also dynamically depicted as a set of one or more line segments each passing through two or more of the nodes that have classes of methods on a call stack. Mapping these conceptual relationships into dynamic, spatial relationships makes them explicit and observable, allowing a user to better understand, debug, and tune the object-oriented program.