HeapAnalyzer

I saw HeapAnalyzer via the IBM alphaWorks: Emerging Technologies Atom feed as well as WebSpherePower Magazine.

I can't say that I was impressed, but hey, remember, I am not a programmer. I couldn't program my way out of a paper bag. I guess the good thing is that you don't have to know how to program to get out of a paper bag.

The HeapAnalyzer might be a great tool, but just hitting the site the thing that impressed me the most was when I looked at the discussion forum for this specific little app. The tool hasn't been out long, but someone had already posted, "Does this work?". Jinwoo Hwang (jwwhang) came back asking the person to try something. Which the user did. Jinwoo then asked the gentleman to upload a copy of his dump and that he would take a look. After looking at the file it was quickly apparent that it was not a heap dump that HeapAnalyzer can read and referred the gentleman to this document regarding heap dump and gave an example of one. The gentleman said that took care of him, made a suggestion and had another question. Jinwoo thanked the individual for the suggestion, said that he would try to improve the next release, pointed the gentleman to another document to answer his question in regards to Solaris JVM and offered to help with future questions. It may have take a few days to accomplish this, but it was nice to see the direct interaction. Of course, the next person posting had the same issue and admitted not reading the FAQs or Documentation. Hmm. Jinwoo pointed the individual to the first document again.

So, if you are out there trying HeapAnalyzer, you might want to make sure that you have the right heap dump before you post to the forum.