Steve wrote:

>>> Instruments.app with the Object Allocations template looks like a  
>>> handy tool to investigate the mystery memory use.
>>> Like most Apple diagnostic tools, it doesn't work for a CFM app  
>>> running under Rosetta, so I can't try it on the editor myself.
>>
>> Is there someone with a PowerPC machine and Leopard installed that  
>> can run this?  The referenced tool is Leopard only (or Xcode 3.0  
>> only) and we need a native (PowerPC) machine.
>
> MY PowerBook has Leopard installed and I can do some testing.

Instruments.app is new in 10.5 and is designed to ferret out weird  
problems at many system levels. I tried out Instruments' ObjectAlloc  
template, with FBtoC as my first victim. ObjectAlloc easily and  
efficiently spies on memory use, even saying which part of the FBtoC  
source code called for each allocation. In the screen shot, InitFB and  
FBFiles are the names of local fns in the FB source:

Instruments is an amazing tool, but it may not work at all for a CFM  
app like the FB editor, and certainly won't give such fine detail  
(FBtoC is a fully modern Mach-O app).
In the worst case, use MallocDebug and/or Shark, which are impressive  
memory spies in their own right, and more familiar too.

Robert P.

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