A post on Microsoft's .NET Compact Framework (.NET CF) blog brings word of some interesting new tools for programmers. Included in a download called "Power Toys for .NET Compact Framework 3.5," they're intended to evaluate performance, obtain diagnostic information, and help with configuration, according to the company.
The six tools said to be included in the package are:
- Remote Performance Monitor and GC Heap Viewer
- NETCF CLR Profiler
- App Configuration Tool (NetCFcfg.exe)
- NETCF ServiceModel Metadata Tool
- Remote Logging Configuration Tool
- NETCF Network Log Viewer
According to information provided on the PowerToys download page, the Remote Performance Monitor and GC Heap Viewer provides real-time counter data (ranging from Garbage Collector activity to type loading info) on a running .NET CF application. The GC Heap Viewer feature allows you to capture the managed heap at any moment your app is running to view live references, and allows you to compare multiple snapshots to find memory leak issues.
The NETCF CLR Profiler is said to be an instrumenting allocation profiler for .NET CF applications. It provides detailed allocation visualizations, allocation callstacks visualizations and useful for diagnosing memory management issues.
The App Configuration Tool (NetCFcfg.exe) is described as an on-device tool for specifying what version of the .NET CF runtime an application will run against, displaying installed versions of .NET CF and displaying info about DLLs.
The NETCF ServiceModel Metadata Tool (netcfsvcutil.exe) allows creation of a Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) client proxy to help developers consume WCF services on device, according to Microsoft. Like svcutil.exe, which is the desktop version of the utility, netcfsvcutil.exe is a command-line tool that generates service model code from metadata documents, and generates metadata documents from service model code.
Finally, the Remote Logging Configuration Tool enables users to easily configure logging options on a .NET CF device, including loader, interop, network, error and finalizer logs. The NETCF Network Log Viewer is described as a utility for viewing .NET CF network log data.
To read or comment upon the .NET Compact Framework Team's post, go here. To go directly to the download of the Power Toys for .NET Compact Framework 3.5, go here.