NexusDB

The Nexus Quality Suite (NQS) is a set of tools that enables you to finetune your applications to the highest possible performance and quality standards. The current collection of tools include two profilers (one working at Method level and one working at Line level), a unit test coverage analyzer, and a GUI script recorder/playback tool. More modules will be added as NQS evolves.

The Quality Suite tools work with 32 bit and 64 bit* windows executables created in all Delphi versions from Delphi 5 and up, and all C++ Builder versions from BCB 5 and up.

The Quality Suite is licensed per developer. Each license may be installed multiple times, and used by a single developer on one machine at a time.

* CodeWatch for 64 bit executables is currently in beta testing.

The Tools in Nexus Quality Suite

CodeWatch

The primary function of CodeWatch is to help you find bugs in your project. It does this by carefully monitoring your running program to find memory and resource leaks as well as errors in calls to Windows API routines. Quality Suite CodeWatch also includes features such as API compliance checking that can help ensure that your program will run properly on the target operating system for deployment. Finally, you can use Quality Suite CodeWatch to stress test your project. The stress testing feature, which is new in this version of the tool, can show you how your project will behave in resource poor environments.

Insider

The Insider tool is a binary code analyzer. It disassembles and analyzes all the code in your module and displays statistical information about the code in tabular form. The information extracted for each routine includes the size of the code, the amount of constant data in the routine, the amount of local data allocated by the routine, and the number of instructions in the routine.

Insider also identifies various code patterns to aid in identifying routines that may be candidates for optimization or other types of refactoring. In addition, Quality Suite Insider creates static cross-references for the code.

MethodTimer

The MethodTimer tool is a performance analyzer. It measures and reports activity in your code with the purpose of identifying performance bottlenecks. Specifically, MethodTimer records routine calls and reports time spent in each routine. It also shows you a list of routines that are called from a particular routine and how much was spent in a routine on behalf of a calling routine. In addition, MethodTimer contains a disassembler that reports the clock counts and pairing issues that affect the efficiency of your code.

The MethodTimer identifies where your program spends the majority of execution time. With a Quality Suite MethodTimer profile in front of you, you can make code transformations in specific areas to improve the performance of your code.

LineTimer

The LineTimer tool is an execution time profiler that lets you enhance your application and even drill down to individual lines in your program. With the LineTimer, you can see actual times spent on any (or all) lines of code in your project. With this tool you can pinpoint exactly which lines cost you the most execution time!

CoverageAnalyst

The CoverageAnalyst tool helps you visually identify the portions of your code that are not fully exercised. With Quality Suite CoverageAnalyst you can build better, more effective test cases.

The most important use of a coverage analyzer is to ensure that all parts of a module (application, DLL, COM object, etc.) have been executed during testing. Far too many programs are released with bugs that escape detection during the quality assurance phase simply because the offending code is never executed. Qality Suite CoverageAnalyst helps to ensure that all parts of the program have been executed.

TestDriver

The TestDriver tool is a testing robot targeted toward graphical Windows applications. TestDriver records mouse and keyboard actions to produce an editable script and allows capturing certain aspects of the program under test. This is a very powerful tool for testing graphical applications as the scripts can be modified to use typical programming constructs such as loops, conditions, function calls, assignment, parameters and verification.

Roadmap

There are more tools and expanded platform support in the pipeline. Presented below in no particular order, here are some of the things on our todo list for Quality Suite: