Hi Ben,

Very nice tool! Thank you very much for it.

Question....do you think it is possible to add a feature that it automatically builds the whole graph starting at target object until the GC root that is holding it? In Pharo, the GC root is the special object array (see #newSpecialObjectsArray).

So the code should basically do a loop for #pointersTo and check if one of those pointers is directly one of the array. Or something like that like.��

Probably it will crash the VM hahaha. But it would be nice to track from a certain object up to the GC root and see all that path in graph :)

On Tue, Sep 2, 2014 at 4:41 PM, Yuriy Tymchuk <yuriy.tymchuk@me.com> wrote:

Oh yes, this is essential part of ��working with objects��. No?

On 02 Sep 2014, at 21:37, Max Leske <maxleske@gmail.com> wrote:

> You are my hero! I was just complaining about that to Doru at ESUG. This sort of tool should be part of the standard tool set so please keep on improving it and we��ll try to convince someone to integrate it :)
>
> Max
>
> On 02.09.2014, at 19:40, Ben Coman <btc@openInWorld.com> wrote:
>
>> greetings all,
>>
>> I had an itch to scratch...�� I find it difficult using the tree list of the standard Pointer Explorer to track down why objects aren't garbage collected.�� I always fear I'm not going to notice getting caught in a reference loop.�� So I created a tool presenting an alternative view as a directed graph.�� The graph incrementally builds out from the target object as you explore it. Nodes are colourised to help manage complexity.
>>
>> The attached snapshot is produced from evaluating the following Workspace script...
>>�� testObject := 'END5'.
>>�� ref1 := { testObject. nil }.
>>�� ref2 := { ref1 }.
>>�� ref3 := PDTestResource new heldObject: ref2.
>>�� ref1 at: 2 put: ref3.�� "note the reference loop this creates"
>>�� PointerDetective openOn: testObject.
>>
>> Now I expect I'm duplicating something done before, but I couldn't find anything quickly and it was an opportunity for some goal direct learning of Morphic. Thanks to Roassal an option for a spring-force layout is provided. That code was copied rather than create a dependency, and might need to be rationalized later.
>> The code is a bit rough from hacking around learning how to make things work, but its functional, so its time to get it out in the open.
>>
>> For more information please refer to the repository home page...
>> http://smalltalkhub.com/#!/~BenComan/PointerDetective
>>
>> cheers -ben
>> <PointerDetectiveExample1.png>
>
>

--
Mariano
http://marianopeck.wordpress.com