Paradyn & DyninstAPI
Software Experience Report

By completing this report, we will be particularly grateful if you can summarize your experience installing and using our tools and software, and your suggestions for any improvements, so that we can enhance future versions of Paradyn and DyninstAPI.

Information you voluntarily provide will not be re-distributed in any way, beyond its use by Paradyn and DyninstAPI developers in the Computer Sciences Departments at the Universities of Wisconsin-Madison and Maryland-College Park.

Thank you for your interest in Paradyn and/or DyninstAPI!

Bart & Jeff

Contact information:

Paradyn DyninstAPI
c/o Prof. Barton P. Miller
Computer Sciences Dept.
University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI 53706-1685
U.S.A. 		c/o Prof. Jeffrey K. Hollingsworth
Computer Science Dept.
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
U.S.A.
paradyn@cs.wisc.edu hollings@cs.umd.edu
Fax: +1 (608) 262-9777 Fax: +1 (301) 405-2744

Personal Information

(Mandatory fields are tagged: *)
Forename(s) M.I.Surname
Name *
E-mail *
Affiliation *
Address
City State Zip
Country
Telephone Fax

Have you previously provided this information:

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Usage Experiences

[Estimated completion time: 10-20 minutes]

If you installed a binary package:
 * Which platforms have you installed?
 SPARC/Solaris;  x86/Solaris;  x86/Linux;  x86/WindowsNT;  MIPS/Irix
Dyninst-only packages:  RS6000/AIX;  Alpha/Tru64
 * How long did it take you to configure the installation?
 * How would you rate the binary installation process?
 * Please document any specific installation problems you encountered,
and/or your suggestions for improvements:

If you tried using Paradyn/DyninstAPI with the test applications provided:
(These are documented in the Paradyn tutorial and DyninstAPI installation notes.)
Paradyn test programs:      DyninstAPI test programs:
bubba (sequential) test1
decomp (requires MPI)
 test2
potato (requires PVM) test3
matrix (SPARC/Solaris threads) test4
 * Please document any specific problems you encountered with these tests,
and/or your suggestions for improvements:

If you investigated using Paradyn/DyninstAPI with your own applications/tools:
 * How would you summarize your experience?
 * Please provide as much relevant information as possible about each application/tool:
 + what it does:
 + programming languages, compilers, communication libraries:
 + operating system and execution environment:
 + typical and maximal numbers of processes and processors:
 + typical range of application/tool execution times:
 + anything else which you consider important:
 * Please document any specific problems you encountered with your applications/tools, and/or your suggestions for improvements:

If you downloaded a source distribution:
(Building the source distribution is generally only necessary for developers.)
 * Which platforms have you built?
 SPARC/Solaris;  x86/Solaris;  x86/Linux;  x86/WindowsNT;  MIPS/Irix
Dyninst-only packages:  RS6000/AIX;  Alpha/Tru64
 * How long did it take to configure the build?
 * How would you rate the configuration/build process?
 * Please document any specific build problems you encountered,
and/or your suggestions for improvements:

If you tried interfacing your own visualizers to Paradyn:
Paradyn provides an open interface to external visualization processes (visis).
 * How would you summarize your experience?
 * Please provide as much relevant information as possible about each visi:
 * Please document any specific problems you encountered with your visis,
and/or your suggestions for improvements:

How do you rate the documentation provided?
(particular comments)
Paradyn Installation Guide
Paradyn Tutorial
Paradyn User's Guide
Dyner User's Guide
DyninstAPI Programmer's Guide
MDL Programmer's Guide
VisiLib Programmer's Guide
LibThread Programmer's Guide
Instrumentation of Multithreaded Apps
Paradyn Developer's Guide
other documentation

If you contacted the Paradyn/DyninstAPI developers for assistance:
 * Was the assistance you received:   timely? adequate?
 * How might the assistance have been improved?

Survey of Interests

(If you recently registered your copy of Paradyn and/or DyninstAPI and already completed this survey you may wish to page over this section or alternatively amend/supplement your previous responses.)

[Estimated completion time: 2-5 minutes]

What is your interest?
Paradyn
DyninstAPI

Which particular Paradyn/DyninstAPI features interest you?
dynamic instrumentation of applications
tool-developer's API for program instrumentation/interaction
language for defining execution/performance metrics
execution data management and export to auxilliary visualizers
automated performance bottleneck diagnoses
analyzing sequential applications
analyzing multithreaded applications:
analyzing parallel/distributed applications: based on MPI and/or PVM
other:
 * Are there particular features currently missing which would interest you?

Have you (or your colleagues) experience with previous Paradyn/DyninstAPI releases?
Personal experience
 * How many colleagues?
 * Which releases?

Are there platforms on which you would like to see Paradyn and/or DyninstAPI supported?
(Please inquire about binaries/sources which may be available for older platforms we are no longer able to support. Platforms itemized below are currently under development.)
Alpha/Tru64   (  T3X);    Alpha/Linux;  Itanium/???;  Ultra/Solaris-64bit;
other platform(s):

Are there platforms on which you would like to see Paradyn support MPI applications?
(Currently, native MPI is supported on Origins and SP2s and MPICH is supported on x86/Linux and x86/Solaris.)
SPARC/Solaris;  x86/WindowsNT  Alpha/Tru64
other platform(s):
details of MPI libraries (provider, version, etc.):

Would you be interested in a presentation of Paradyn and/or DyninstAPI, perhaps including a tutorial and/or detailed examples/demonstrations of their use?
in Madison;       in Maryland;       at your site
at some other site, perhaps in conjunction with a conference or workshop:
suggestions:

Would you be interested in an opportunity for in-depth hands-on experience with Paradyn and/or DyninstAPI with your own application(s)?
in Madison;       in Maryland;       at your site
at some other site, perhaps in conjunction with a conference or workshop:
suggestions:

If you are interested in tool development:
We are leading an effort (DyninstAPI/DPCL) to standardize the interfaces available to tool developers for instrumenting and controlling parallel and distributed programs, with many of the key computer industry companies and academic/research groups participating.
 * Are you aware of this effort?
 * Would you like to be added to the mailing list for this effort?

Would you like us to provide you with any other information about Paradyn/DyninstAPI?

Do you have any other comments for us about Paradyn/DyninstAPI, the release or this form?

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  • Personal Info
  • Experience Report
  • Survey of Interests