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# Time Lines Window

Figure: Timeline window in Thread view

Let's assume that you select Connected States in Thread view in ``Preview'', when you click on the Display buttons in the ``View & Frame Selector'' window. A Time Lines window as shown in Figure will pop up. The Time Lines window provides a detailed display of the sppm trace data as a GANTT chart with the x-axis as time and the y-axis as thread ID. The control buttons in the top panel provide zoom IN and OUT operations around the zoom focus, which could be set by putting the cursor at the point of interest on the GANNT chart and pressing the key ``z''. In Figure , the zoom focus is marked by a white line drawn from the top to the botton of the diagram and is labeled as ZOOM LOCK in red.

Figure: A zoomed in view of the Time Lines window.

After being zoomed in several times, the Time Lines window looks like Figure . At this resolution, many more details are exposed. For instance, the MPI_Isend states that are in navy blue in the figure become noticeable. Clicking on any rectangle in the Time Lines canvas will pop up a ``Rectangle Info'' box which contains various information regarding the subroutine call(e.g. start and end time of the call), and various call arguments and instruction address(es) if there are any. Clicking on the ``Rectangle Info'' box again will remove the box from the screen. Also, clicking on the red circle at the end of the arrow will pop up a ``Arrow Info'' box, which provides a function similar to that of ``Rectangle Info''. In Figure , MPI_Isend, MPI_Irecv, and MPI_Wait are all nested within the user-defined state ``bdrys''. This suggests that ``bdrys'', which is a user-defined subroutine call, makes all these MPI calls. Also, the regularity of the pattern of arrows can provide insight about how data are exchanged.

Several tricks and hidden operations are worth mentioning. First, it is the trick in locating small rectangles: since all the rectangles have a white border surrounding them, when many small rectangles are next to each other in very low resolution, they form a completely white rectangle. A totally white rectangle usually means a lot more details are hidden inside. Second, a trick about scrolling: you can drag on the scroll tab to advance to later time, but scrolling becomes slow when there are many threads with a lot of objects. In this case, click on the white space between the scroll tab and the end arrow tab in the direction that you want to advance to. The operation will allow the next time frame in the canvas to be redrawn immediately. Third, the label of the y-axis in Thread view is (MPI-rank, local thread ID), but it is different in different views. Because of the limited space on the canvas, the label of the y-axis is actually written in the tooltip of the two vertical y-axis label. The tooltip can be activated by simply putting the cursor over any y-axis integer doublet for few seconds. Fourth, doubly clicking on any integer doublet label will invoke the ``Time Lines Manipulation'' window as shown in Figure . This window provides various operations on the selected time line, for instance, the adjustment of time line by changing the offset of the time line for alignment of rectangles, or the swapping of different time lines for organizational purposes.

Figure: The Time Lines Manipulation window.

Fifth, there is a trick about the Definitions window, which is located at the bottom of the Time Lines window. The Definitions windows consists of a collection of definition panels, each has a checkbox and a definition button corresponding to each state/arrow in the Time Lines canvas. The Definitions window can be torn out of the Time Lines window as a standalone window, or it can be re-attached to any one of the four sides of the Time Lines window. This allows the user to change the arrangement of the state and arrow definitions to optimize the use of the Time Lines canvas. All states and arrows definitions are checked by default. Unchecking any of definitions will make the corresponding states or arrows invisible. The goal is to help users highlight what they are interesed in by hiding the uninteresting ones. Clicking on any of the definition buttons will bring up the histogram window of the corresponding state/arrow. For example, the forward arrow button will invoke a window as shown in Figure .

Figure: The histogram for the forward arrow in the frame.

The Histogram window provides basic statistics and statistical distribution of the duration of the selected state. The ``Blink States'' button enables the selected state/arrow in the Time Lines window to flash. Again the goal is to help highlight the objects. Finally, we note that the memory demand for Time Lines window is very high, especially on Linux box with JDK-1.1(running green thread). Our experience indicates that the amount of X server memory needed to have one instance of Time Lines window running is proportional to the size of the Time Lines window and the color depth of the X server. If one plans to run multiple instances of Time Lines windows at the same time, be sure to have enough physical memory for the X server and Java Virtual Machine.

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