Simple debugging and profiling#

Debug vs Releases#

cisTEM defines several preprocessor macros that can be used to debug code, without any cost to the release build. Those defined in /src/define.h are:

#ifdef DEBUG
#define MyDebugPrintWithDetails(...)	{wxPrintf(__VA_ARGS__); wxPrintf("From %s:%i\n%s\n\n", __FILE__,__LINE__,__PRETTY_FUNCTION__); StackDump dump(NULL); dump.Walk(2);}
#define MyPrintWithDetails(...)	{wxPrintf(__VA_ARGS__); wxPrintf("From %s:%i\n%s\n", __FILE__,__LINE__,__PRETTY_FUNCTION__);StackDump dump(NULL); dump.Walk(2);}
#define MyDebugPrint(...)	{wxPrintf(__VA_ARGS__); wxPrintf("\n");}
#define MyDebugAssertTrue(cond, msg, ...) {if ((cond) != true) { wxPrintf("\n" msg, ##__VA_ARGS__); wxPrintf("\nFailed Assert at %s:%i\n%s\n", __FILE__,__LINE__,__PRETTY_FUNCTION__); DEBUG_ABORT;}}
#define MyDebugAssertFalse(cond, msg, ...) {if ((cond) == true) { wxPrintf("\n" msg, ##__VA_ARGS__); wxPrintf("\nFailed Assert at %s:%i\n%s\n", __FILE__,__LINE__,__PRETTY_FUNCTION__); DEBUG_ABORT;}}
#define DEBUG_ABORT {StackDump dump(NULL); dump.Walk(1); abort();}
#else
#define MyPrintWithDetails(...)	{wxPrintf(__VA_ARGS__); wxPrintf("From %s:%i\n%s\n", __FILE__,__LINE__,__PRETTY_FUNCTION__);}
#define MyDebugPrintWithDetails(...)
#define MyDebugPrint(...)
#define MyDebugAssertTrue(cond, msg, ...)
#define MyDebugAssertFalse(cond, msg, ...)
#define DEBUG_ABORT exit(-1);
#endif

MyPrintWithDetails(“”); is especially useful for tracking down exactly where something is going wrong in the event the backtrace is not enough.

Profiling#

simple profiling in cisTEM is accomplished with the StopWatch class. This is too complicated for a preprocessor macro to handle appropriatly, so to handle the release/debug cases, we have introduced two namespaces:

namespace cisTEM_timer, cisTEM_timer_noop#

They can be used and mixed as follows:

  1. in global declarative region, just put in “using cistem_timer”. Then any calls to StopWatch::methods will be as normal

  2. in global declarative region, place “using cistem_timer(_noop)” under control of a preprocessor define, such that the “noop” namespace can be invoked(or not) with a configure option. 🧨 The noop namespace defines all the methods as inline such that the compiler optimizes them out, and there is no function call inserted into the compiled assembly

  3. In combination with the previous (control via preprocesser define) you can also instantiate a StopWatch object by directly using the namespace

E.g.

#include core_headers.h

#ifdef ENABLE_PROFILING
using namespace cistem_timer
#else
using namespace cistem_timer_noop
#endif
-----
program variables etc.
-----
cistem_timer::StopWatch always_on_timer; // invoke namespace directly, this timer always runs
Stopwatch profiler; // relies on the using directive, gated by the preprocessor define