Sample Reporter
Sample Reporter is a small application that allows you to quickly run the Unix sample command. This captures a short report of what a specific application is actually doing, which can be invaluable for troubleshooting problems.
A good place to use this is if an application has hung, and you're stuck with the dreaded "spinning pizza of death". By running a short "sample" of just what the hung application is doing, this can often help the developer track down what the problem is.
Cocoatech provides Sample Reporter as a free utility. It doesn't do much, but it may come in handy if you've got a problem with Path Finder (or some other application) hanging.
Updated Oct. 6, 2006: A new version of the SampleReporter application that runs natively on both PPC and Intel Macs is now available!
» Download Sample Reporter (.dmg, 3.4mbs)
Sample Reporter comes as-is, with no warranties or support. It's not too difficult to use, so we don't think you'll need more than what's on this page, at any rate.
How to use Sample Reporter
- Launch Sample Reporter. The Application menu allows you to choose which currently running application you wish to grab a sample from.
Note: You can only sample from applications that have an interface - background applications are not selectable
- Use the Duration menu to choose how long you wish to sample from the selected application. Usually 5 is plenty.
- Click the Sample button. After a short delay, a new window will open with a bunch of text in it. This is the sampled report.
- If you're sampling a Path Finder problem, click the Email Report button to email the report directly to Cocoatech. If you're sampling another application, copy the text and send it to the developer of that application.
- That's it!
Hopefully this information will help Cocoatech (or the developer of your application) fix the problem!
