Author: methodradmin

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Blog Posts Videos

Fill the Glass S1.E1

Today, Cary Millsap hosted the inaugural episode of his new weekly online session, called “Fill the Glass.” Episode 1 was an ask-me-anything session, covering topics including how to access the Method R workspace in Slack, advice about being your own publisher, and our GitHub repository (available now) for Cary’s and Jeff’s new book, “Tracing Oracle” (available soon).

Visit our “Fill the Glass” page for access to past recordings and future live sessions.

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Workbench Release Notes

Workbench 9.2.4.0

  • 8493: Fixed a Windows launcher bug that would prevent Workbench from automatically using any Java version newer than 1.8.
  • 8486: Fixed a bug where mrwhen might abnormally terminate while reading a 19c trace file.

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Workbench Release Notes

Workbench 9.2.3.0

  • 8478: Fixed a bug where loading a file might not work, which could lead to a “Cannot synchronize…” dialog.
  • 8463: Adjusted some advisory text.

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FAQ

Why is Method R unique?

The fundamental measure of performance is response time—the duration that someone spends waiting for an experience to finish. Only by measuring response time can you guarantee that your system is not wasting any of your user’s time.

Continue reading “Why is Method R unique?”
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Workbench Release Notes

Workbench 9.2.2.2

  • 8460: Fixed the mrls man page to emphasize that mrls ignores files with names not matching `*.trc`.
  • 8459: Changed the size of the About and Help › License dialog boxes to not require the vertical scrollbar upon opening.
  • 8457: Created some new event sub-types and modified some tolerances.
  • 8454: Added instructions at method-r.com/software/workbench/install about how to change Java versions.
  • 8452: Improved advisory text for cases when “%d other subroutines” accounts for PROFILE-RELEVANCE-THRESHOLD or more of total response time.
  • 8451: New `mrcrop bytes` command makes it easy to crop a trace file by a byte offset range.
  • 8449: Improved description of –include=VERSION field.
  • 8444: Clarified the `mrcrop linerange` –start-line and –end-line option documentation.
  • 8441: Refined the blue Method R Workbench icon.
  • 8435: New action: “Duration by SQL ID, SQL text, and call name”.
  • 8433: mrprof now honors sub-typing of synthetic calls in cdefs.xml, such as the new “unaccounted-for within dbcalls [trace error]” subtype.
  • 8432: Improved advisory text for a case in which a single “unaccounted-for within dbcalls” call duration dominates the call type’s overall contribution.

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Books

Faster: How to Optimize a System

Faster: How to Optimize a System

Faster: How to Optimize a System is the latest book by Cary Millsap with Jeff Holt. It’s a book for anybody who is curious about how computer programs and other processes spend their time, and what you can do to improve them.

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Hardcover

Cary Millsap has a gift. Yes, he’s brilliant at making things run faster, but his true genius is translating complex problems into simple, powerful ideas. This master teacher combines vivid stories with clear practices to teach principles that are as timeless and they are timely. If you want systems that keep pace with the new world of work, don’t wait—read Faster!

Liz Wiseman, New York Times bestselling author of Multipliers and Impact Player

I can’t believe I was in my forties the first time I saw how to optimize a system the way Cary and Jeff do it. Now, it doesn’t even make sense to me that anyone would try it any other way.

Richard Russell, former 7-Eleven enterprise architect

Faster is the single most concise material on the topic of performance analysis and optimization out there.

Jonah H. Harris, director of AI & ML at The Meet Group
Continue reading “Faster: How to Optimize a System”
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Workbench Release Notes

Workbench 9.2.1.2

  • 8405: mrskew now can read trace files with missing SQL statement text.
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Release Announcements

Workbench 9.2

Method R Workbench 9.2 adds bug fixes and exciting new features to 9.1. The application now runs on any version of Java at or greater than Java SE 8. We have replaced the muddy zebra-striping in the files pane and the HTML5 output with a cleaner, more elegant, Tufte-inspired three-row banding method. Table headers in the HTML5 output are now sticky, which means they always remain conveniently in view, regardless of how many rows a table has (it’s especially convenient for analyzing long execution plans). And the Workbench application takes less time to start up in this release, especially when you’ve been working with lots of trace files.

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Workbench Release Notes

Workbench 9.2.0.23

  • 8404: Updated the installation instructions URL in the application’s “Startup Error” dialog.
  • 8401: Made column widths consistent in the mrskew man page all.rc example on p14.
  • 8400: Workbench will now run with any version of Java from 1.8 onward.
  • 8395: All Windows binaries are now signed.
  • 8384: Eliminated mrskew $t alias for $tim.
  • 8377: Added mean, min, and max information to profile by subroutine total lines.
  • 8374: Table headers are now sticky, which means they always remain conveniently in view, regardless of how many rows a table has.
  • 8373: Moved the skew column in profile by subroutine tables to the tail of each row, so that min and max data will be adjacent to each other.
  • 8370: Eliminated redundant $oraver mrskew variable, and fixed $oracle_release variable to recognize new Oracle Database 19c trace file version stamps.
  • 8361: Replaced zebra-striping of the files panel with a cleaner, more elegant, Tufte-inspired three-row banding method.
  • 8355: The Method R Workbench application now allows you to open a profile report by clicking on an ID or Size column value.
  • 8322: Changed Evaluate › Run menu option name to Evaluate › Run Action.
  • 8319: Profiler error messages generated by the app are now separated by a newline.
  • 8313: Eliminate unused aliases $h, $cur_id, $cid, and $ses_id.
  • 8307: Workbench now recognizes Oracle Database version info printed in the new 19c format.
  • 8304: New mrskew prepackaged action answers the question, “How much time would an execution have spent reading blocks if it did no block re-reads?”
  • 8301: If you specify mrskew –rc=file for a file that does not exist, mrskew will now terminate immediately upon parsing the command line and not run the report.
  • 8299: The “Duration by SQL ID”, “LIO count by SQL ID”, and “PIO count by SQL ID” reports now all use the –alldepths command line option.
  • 8297: mrskew now interprets ERROR lines as dbcalls.
  • 8296: Added new mrskew $oerr expression variable.
  • 8292: Fixed a bug that could cause an “can’t build document from input xml file” error.
  • 8291: Fixed a bug that caused Preferences panel tabs to render illegibly.
  • 8283: Removed the .zip item from mrprof man page Description section, and –first_member and –member options, because mrprof does not process .zip archives.
  • 8282: Updated mrwhen man page with information about new features.
  • 8281: Fixed a bug causing the Workbench application to change the cursor to a “Mickey hand” in some situations where clicking is not allowed.
  • 8280: Fixed a bug that would cause a reload of a relocated file to produce a “can’t open file” error.
  • 8276: Workbench startup and the View › Clear Application feature now take less time than before, especially for a database with many loaded files.
  • 8273: Added mrprof –load and –create options.
  • 8272: Added documentation for mrprof –workers option to the mrprof man page.
  • 8271: Added new $module_id and $action_id variables, and eliminated the now-ambiguous aliases $service, $serv, $module, $mod, $action, and $act.
  • 8261: Fixed a bug that caused the Workbench application on macOS not to load files dropped onto a Workbench icon.
  • 8250: mrskew now exposes a mrtime function and variables $time0 and $time1.
  • 8249: Fixed a bug causing mr1011 not to properly scale c values on RPC EXEC lines.
  • 8248: Cursor no longer changes to a hand when hovering over a File value when the file does not exist.
  • 8247: New “Copy selected file rows to output (shift-click for CSV)” button function creates CSV output.
  • 8245: Moved Workbench installation instructions from https://method-r.com/man/mrworkbench to https://method-r.com/software/workbench/install.
  • 8241: Clarified and simplified some mrwhen warning messages.
  • 8240: mrprof now warns when you try to process a file that mrprof is not designed to process.
  • 8239: Added all the content (prerequisites, installation, troubleshooting, …) from https://method-r.com/man/workbench to https://method-r.com/software/workbench.
  • 8237: Documented instructions for activating a Workbench license key at https://method-r.com/software/workbench/install.
  • 8235: Clicking on a trace file’s Directory value now opens the file manager, even if the file’s folder no longer exists.
  • 8228: Fixed a bug causing mr1011 not to scale c values correctly.
  • 8227: Updated mr1011 man page with information about new features.
  • 8226: mr1011 now appends a tim field to each WAIT line in pre-10g trace files.
  • 8225: Workbench application now makes a success sound when a file load is complete.
  • 8222: Method R Workbench 9 is certified to run on macOS 11.1 Big Sur.
  • 8221: Added the mr1011 manual page to the application Help menu.
  • 8220: Added mention of the mrcrop utility to the mrprof man page.
  • 8216: Offset the stateful “Show mrprof details” button from the other buttons in the main toolbar, matching the spacing of the stateful “Show example output” button in the action pane toolbar.
  • 8215: Re-labeled hover hint from “Elide mrprof details” to “Hide mrprof details”.
  • 8210: Modified Workbench icon to meet macOS 11 specifications.
  • 8208: Added new mr1011 –scale option.
  • 8207: Fixed a bug causing the “# mr1011…” comment line not to be written to the output.
  • 8206: Fixed a bug where CLIENT, ACTION, and MODULE values included characters introduced in 18c that aren’t part of the actual values.
  • 8203: Fixed a bug causing mrprofk not to properly recognize the end of a SQL statement in a PARSE ERROR section.
  • 8192: mrcrop now denies any attempt to overwrite a file.
  • 8191: Improved the performance of mrwhen –tim for large files.
  • 8190: Added new mrwhen –drift and –drift-only options.
  • 8184: Fixed a bug causing the Workbench application to miscalculate how much time is remaining on the license key.
  • 8183: Fixed a bug causing mr1011 not to emit the sqlid field on PARSING IN CURSOR lines.
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Videos

Method R Workbench Video Tips

A collection of short video tips to help make the most of your Method R Workbench experience.

  1. Method R Software Workflow (1:54)
  2. Automatically Opening Profiles (1:43)
  3. The “Automatic Transmission” (1:36)
  4. The “Show mrprof details” Button (1:32)
  5. Which File to Open Next? (1:03)
  6. The Pig Nose (1:25)
  7. Connection Pools (2:21)
  8. Locale Code (0:54)