[wp-hackers] Performance Testing Plugin Mid-Term Status

[Jacob Santos]

The Performance Testing Plugin is a web based cachegrind file viewer. It 
processes the cachegrind files and displays brief statistics on 
functions which should be looked at closer for performance related 
issues. The plugin is for both WordPress testers and plugin developers 
and testers. The goal is to give an indication on what areas of code are 
not performing fast enough, are being called a lot (might want to look 
at optimizing most used functions first before looking at functions 
which can't be fixed).

The plugin is completed as in it is functional and can be used. I 
decided to write my own code instead of using Webgrind library for the 
lexer and parser, seemed like a good idea. I worked a great deal on the 
lexer and parser for the cachegrind files, and while I can't get the 
speed faster enough for larger files, I think it is fine at the moment. 
It is very memory efficient at the moment which is good, since it should 
be able to handle almost any file, as long as it doesn't time out.

The rest of the details will have to be worked out over time as to what 
statistics are better to be displayed for the testers and developers. I 
do see myself using this plugin a lot in the coming months after the 
Google Summer of Code is complete, so I do see myself refining the 
plugin and improving it with better details that matter the most with 
better functionality.

There are parts of the code I do like, the point that half the code has 
inline documentation and is somewhat clean before you get into the 
cachegrind process code. There still needs to be more inline 
documentation and there also needs to be test cases for several parts of 
the code. Those two items will come later as they are lower of a 
priority at this point.

The plugin can be found at: http://www.santosj.name/performance.zip

After the major issues with the plugin are fixed, I'll begin work on 
converting the WordPress library to a PHP extension. My project consists 
of two parts, the Performance Testing Plugin and the WordPress PHP 
extension. The latter of which will commence next week, while I put the 
finishing touches on the plugin.

Jacob Santos