Traditionally, trace analysis and visualization tools are strongly coupled with the format of the trace files of the traced system. These available tools in the industry are focused on specific trace formats and specialized use cases for their systems. The goal of the Eclipse Trace Compass project has always been to provide an extensible and customizable trace analysis and visualization application where users can add their own trace types, analysis, and visualizations, while benefiting from supplied analyses. The application can be deployed as a standalone trace viewer or can be part of an Eclipse IDE (Integrated Development Environment) to have tight integration in the user's design loop.
With the arrival of Eclipse Theia, the new platform for creating custom IDEs, users can now enjoy modern UI (User Interface) technologies beside a rich set of development tools provided by the Eclipse, Theia and VS Code community. To provide an integrated trace visualization experience in Theia, the Trace Compass project is migrating their offering to the Theia platform. The new solution (TraceCompass.cloud) will leverage a client-server architecture, the same trace analysis back-end, an agnostic exchange protocol to transport analysis results over the wire and a web front-end implementation for Theia IDEs.
The trace analysis back-end is leveraging the Trace Compass domain specific logic, so that users, who are familiar with Eclipse Trace Compass, have a similar set of capabilities and features. Moreover, it preserves the large previous development investment.
The trace-type agnostic exchange protocol, TSP (Trace Server Protocol), and the separate client and server architecture allows for further customizability: users can replace the Trace Compass analysis back-end with their own domain specific implementation, or they can provide custom clients from scripting languages or other front-end technologies. This allows the toolkit to be easily ported to more applications.
In this talk, we will go over the progress of the project, the relationship to and integration with Eclipse CDT.cloud project and the future roadmap. We will also summarize the key architecture and design of the Theia-based application.
Please join if you are looking for information on how trace analysis and visualization can be part of your Theia IDE.
