FreeMASTER V3.2.4.3 is significantly slower

[scotty]

Dear FreeMASTER developers and useres,

do you also noticed a longer waiting time with version 3.2.4.3 when you load projects or if you want to modify or add a variable to be monitored?

Currently we are still using version 3.2.2.2 which is much faster. 

Can anybody confirm this behavior? Does anybody know why?

Best Regards
michaeL

[scotty]

Dear Michal,

Thank you very much for your extremely quick response. - Right now, it is not an urgent problem for us because we use mainly version 3.2.2.2 (and we are rather happy with it). But we are still interested in bugfixes, new features and general improvements.

Yes, I would say, that our projects are rather big. But I do not know how big the typical project of the average FreeMASTER user is. We use the XML file format for the FreeMASTER project which is better suited for our version control system. My PMPX file has a file size about 3.5 MByte.

As Torsten already explained, I also tried version 3.2.4.3 in conjunction with another project file and I also noticed a slow down. 
The load time of the project had slightly increased (approximately 40s vs 50s) but the waiting time for editing and modifying became much longer. In version 3.2.2.2 it takes around 5s to open the dialog. In the latest version I can go and fetch a coffee in the meantime. This also happens if the communication is not started.

I already downgraded to V3.2.2.2.

By the way:
Is it possible to install two FreeMASTER versions 3.2.u.v and 3.2.x.y on the same PC? - If I install another 3.2 version, the already installed version gets removed.

Regards
michaeL

[MichalH]

Dear Michael and Torsten,

I confirm the bug affecting performance badly when number of ELF symbols is high. We will try to deliver a fixed version as soon as possible.

In order to have more minor versions installed, you can always copy the whole installation folder to a different place before running a new installer which updates it. You can then run the pcmaster.exe from the copied location. Just beware that you really need to copy the installation, not move or rename it. Renaming it would confuse the installer as it would not locate the existing installation. 

The new installer will always install and register the latest version of plug-ins and they will be used with older versions too, but this is okay in most cases. In worst case, the plug-ins from older version can be re-registered by running its register.bat as administrator. 

Thank you for helping to make the FreeMASTER better.

Best regards,
Michal

[scotty]

Dear Michal,

This is good news. Thank you very much in advance for providing a fixed version. 

If needed and if you like, we can test a beta release with our project and ELF files.

The instructions how to install more than one version where only the minor digits differ will help us in the future to evaluate a new version. Thanks.

All the best,
michaeL

[MichalH · Accepted solution]

Hello Michael,

the fixed version is now available for download at www.nxp.com/freemaster, it installs as v3.2.4.4.

• The Variable Definition dialog is now not blocked by feeding all symbols into the address drop-down list. This makes the dialog to appear quickly regardless of number of symbols loaded.
• The symbol drop-down list in the variable definition dialog is populated if and only if it is focused. Filling of the list has been optimized (this was actually the root cause of the reported performance issue)
• The variable watch can now display "Address" column which shows where is the symbol coming from (ELF/TSA) along with the resolved physical address.

Please confirm the fix by closing this topic.

Thank you,
Michal

[scotty]

Thank you very much, Michal, for providing a official bug-fix version.

I tested the new FreeMASTER version 3.2.4.4 wich was build on 2024-10-24. It works like intended. Now, there is only a short delay when the dialog for adding or modifying a variable is displayed.

Also, the new address column is helpful.

Best regards,
michaeL

[SuperToto]

I tried something different. I started FreeMaster fresh, clicked on “File -> New Project” in an otherwise empty window, then loaded a smaller ELF file under “Project -> Options…”. I attempted to create a new variable with “Project -> Variables -> New”. It took 58 seconds for the window to open.

Then, I downgraded FreeMaster to version 3.2.3.2 and repeated the exact same steps. With this version, the window opened in just 2 seconds. 

So, version 3.2.2.2 and 3.2.3.2 are fine, but version 3.2.4.2 is nearly unusable.

[SuperToto]

Hi Michal,

I am Torsten, a colleague of Michael, and I demonstrated the slowdown to him. Our projects certainly have a lot of variables (> 1000), but that hasn’t changed.

When you double-click on a variable, it takes 1.5 minutes for a window to open for editing. In version 3.2.2.2, this took less than 5 seconds. When you then click on the “Modifying” tab in this window, you have to wait more than a minute again.

• HTLM is only the "EMPTY" page loaded.
• Communication is stopped. (Has no impact.)
• No graph is shown. The root item is selected. (Has also no impact.)
• Created a new item with empty watch list. Double clicked in an empty field to create a new variable. Waiting for the dialogue window to pop-up while writing this... (popped up after 2 minutes.)
• No floating graphs are shown. 

I tried the following:

Communication is not active. PC is even not connected to target. I closed all views and windows. Only the "EMPTY" page is displayed. I clicked on "Project" -> "Variables..." and the dialogue opens without any delay. I clicked on "New..." and I get a spinning cursor and "Not Responding" in the window title. After 2 minutes the "Variable" dialogue pops up and I can select a variable from the "Address" list. Then I click on "Modifying" and get a spinning Cursor and "Not Responding" again. After 1:58 the dialogue is responding again and I can change settings.

Best regards
Torsten

[MichalH]

Dear Michael,

I'm sorry to hear you are facing performance issues. It was not observed during our tests. I would need more details about the project, HTML component used, communication set up, ELF file etc.  Is the project is large scale? (thousands of variables or project items?)

The only change I can think of which could affect the speed is a bugfix/change of communication plug-in threading model. All plug-ins are redeclared from Neutral to Free threading model to prevent lockup issues in case a plug-in displays a message box or a dialog window. But this change would not affect the UI when communication is closed and also it would affect older versions too as the plug-ins are system-wide libraries. Do I understand it correctly that the version 3.2.2.2 is not affected?

Other fixes were more kind of cosmetic changes or larger features like NXP Gui Guider support, but I cannot imagine how it could affect performance.

Things to try to see if performance of UI operations improve (please let me know if any helps):

• Turn off HTML control page
• Stop communication
• Switch away from graph view (e.g. select a project root item)
• Switch to an item with an empty Variable Watch
• Close all floating graph or watch views.

Thanks,
Michal