Software Diagnostics Library

Ideally a trace or log message should contain only one piece of information including associated data. However, some Multidimensional Messages may contain unrelated information, including several Message Invariants and variable data places, for example: “Entry GetData. Error opening file: 0×5″ or “Window handle: 0xa60834 pHandler: 0×456210F0″. Such messages may be split into several independent messages and, if necessary, additional ATIDs (new Adjoint Threads of Activity) may be added like depicted in this diagram of Combed Trace:

Another example is Exception Stack Trace messages in some logging implementations.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org + TraceAnalysis.org -

Semantic Field is a set of messages that belong to particular category or subject:

It is different from Trace Field which is a function, not an already prepared codomain of mapping.

Some Semantic Fields may be formed by the analysis of Implementation Discourse, for example using machine learning techniques.

The pattern name was inspired by semantic field in linguistics and came to our attention when reading “German Loanwords in English: An Historical Dictionary” book.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org + TraceAnalysis.org -

If Implementation Discourse focuses on objective technology specific discourse then Traces of Individuality pattern focuses on subjective elements in a software log and its messages. Here we mean some specific naming or tracing conventions either from an individual engineer habit or from some corporate coding standard. As an example of it consider a trace message from a catch statement:

"Surprise, surprise, should have never been caught"

More examples for this pattern will be added later.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org + TraceAnalysis.org -

In a week this short full color book should appear in online bookstores:

• Title: Software Narratology: An Introduction to the Applied Science of Software Stories
• Authors: Dmitry Vostokov, Memory Dump Analysis Services
• Description: This is a transcript of Memory Dump Analysis Services Webinar about Software Narratology: an exciting new discipline and a field of research founded by DumpAnalysis.org. When software executes it gives us its stories in the form of UI events, software traces and logs. Such stories can be analyzed for their structure and patterns for troubleshooting, debugging and problem resolution purposes. Topics also include software narremes and their types, anticipatory software construction and software diagnostics.
• Publisher: OpenTask (April 2012)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 28.0 x 21.6
• Paperback: 26 pages
• ISBN-13: 978-1908043078

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org + TraceAnalysis.org -

Based on an idea of expression and content planes from glossematics with a basic unit of glosseme we can organize software traces with corresponding patterns and software trace narremes (basic units of software narrative such as traces and event logs) into 2 planes: software trace narrative plane (expression) with narremes and the corresponding program lines of traces (PLOTs) source code and design plane (content) with their own set of construction narremes such as collaboration of software constructs. All this corresponds to the following diagram:

The same can be said about actor interaction level of software construction (what ought to be) and post-construction (what is) phases having their own construction and post-construction narratives, patterns and narremes such as in requirements (use cases) and in problem and software incident descriptions:

In the forthcoming articles I provide more examples and explanations including specific software narremes useful from the practical post-construction software problem solving perspective. Please also register for the forthcoming free Webinar: Introduction to Software Narratology where I plan to provide a coherent overview of this new field.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org + TraceAnalysis.org -

Memory Dump Analysis Services (DumpAnalysis.com) organizes a free Webinar about software narratology: an application of ideas from narratology to software narrative stories.

Learn about this exciting new discipline and a field of research. When software executes it gives us its stories in the form of UI events, software traces and logs. Such stories can be analyzed for their structure and patterns for troubleshooting, debugging and problem resolution purposes.

Prerequisites: basic software troubleshooting and ability to read software generated logs.

Audience: anyone can benefit from this new perspective: from software users to software engineers and managers.

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/603136294

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org + TraceAnalysis.org -

Based on ideas of Roman Jakobson about “marked” and “unmarked” categories we propose another pattern called Marked Message that groups trace messages based on having some feature or property. For example, marked messages may point to some domain of software activity such related to functional requirements and therefore may help in troubleshooting and debugging. Unmarked messages include all other messages that don’t say anything about such activities (although may include messages pointing to such activities indirectly we unaware of) or messages that say explicitly that no such activity has occurred. We can even borrow a notation of distinctive features from phonology and annotate any trace or log after analysis to compare it with a master trace, for example, compose the following list of software trace distinctive features:

session database queries [+]
session initialization [-]
socket activity [+]
process A launched [+]
process B launched [-]
process A exited [-]
[…]

Here [+] means the activity is present in the trace and [-]  means the activity is either undetected or definitely not present. Sometime a non-present activity can be a marked activity corresponding to all inclusive unmarked present activity (see, for example, No Activity pattern).

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org + TraceAnalysis.org -

The number of software trace analysis patterns approaches the critical mass of 50 and we have decided to focus on software tracing and logging in the forthcoming year. Some books on tracing including Volume 7 of Memory Dump Analysis Anthology will be published by OpenTask during that year and our efforts will be to further advance software narratology, software trace linguistics, and software trace analysis in the context of memory dump analysis, generative debugging and modeling software behavior.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org + TraceAnalysis.org -

Frequently we observe that several trace messages form a single semantic unit we call Macrofunction where individual trace messages serve the role of microfunctions. We borrowed this idea and distinction from functionalist linguistics. An example would be a software trace fragment where messages log an attempt to update a database:

#     Module   PID  TID   Time         Message
[...]
42582 DBClient 5492 9476  11:04:33.398 Opening connection
[...]
42585 DBClient 5492 9476  11:04:33.398 Sending SQL command
[...]
42589 DBServer 6480 10288 11:04:33.399 Executing SQL command
[...]
42592 DBClient 5492 9476  11:04:33.400 Closing connection
[...]

Please note that these macrofunctions need not be from the same ATID in the traditional sense like in the example above unless we form adjoint threads from certain fragments like “DB”.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org + TraceAnalysis.org -

Memoretics as a science of memory snapshots borrows many ideas from the following disciplines (the list is not exhaustive):

• Troubleshooting and Debugging
• Intelligence Analysis
• Critical Thinking
• Forensics
• Linguistics
• Archaeology
• Psychoanalysis
• History
• Mathematics: Sets and Categories
• Literary Criticism and Narratology

It also contributes many ideas back. The following diagram depicts such an interaction:

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org + TraceAnalysis.org -

As the new decade is approaching (2011-2020) we would like to make a few previews and predictions:

- Increased complexity of software will bring more methods from biological, social sciences and humanities in addition to existing methods of automated debugging and computer science techniques

- Focus on first fault software problem solving (when aspect)

- Focus on pattern-driven software problem solving (how aspect)

- Fusion of debugging and malware analysis into a unified structural and behavioral pattern framework

- Visual debugging, memory and software trace visualization techniques

- Software maintenance certification

- Focus on domain-driven troubleshooting and debugging tools as a service (debugware TaaS)

- Focus on security issues related to memory dumps and software traces

- New scripting languages and programming language extensions for debugging

- The maturation of the science of memory snapshots and software traces (memoretics)

Imagining is not not limited to the above and more to come and explain in the forthcoming parts.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org + TraceAnalysis.org -

If we look at any non-trivial trace we would see different Implementation Discourses. Components are written in different languages and adhere to different runtime environments, binary models and interface frameworks. All these implementation variations influence the structure, syntax and semantics of trace messages. For example, .NET debugging traces differ from file system driver or COM debugging messages. Therefore we establish the new field of Software Trace Linguistics as a science of software trace languages. Some parallels can be drawn here towards software linguistics (the science of software languages) although we came to that conclusion independently while thinking about applying “ethnography of speaking” to software trace narration. More on this in the following posts.

- Dmitry Vostokov @ DumpAnalysis.org + TraceAnalysis.org -