Re: [Plplot-devel] valgrind [purify killer]

[Geoffrey F. <fu...@ga...>]

Maurice LeBrun writes:
 > Geoffrey Furnish writes:
 >  > For those whoe know Rational's purify product, this is the GPL app
 >  > that's gonna crush purify, at least on the Linux platform.  Rational
 > 
 > I'm glad to see it.  I left a message on Rational's web site about
 > Linux support, and although they did eventually get back to me, their
 > response was ludicrous -- yes they were going to support Linux but only
 > for IA-64. <snort>  Unbelievable.  Let's see, just how many installed
 > platforms IS that? :)

purify licenses are /really/ expensive.  When I talked to their
director of Unix tools some years ago while I was at LANL, he
basically said they didn't believe Linux users would be willing to pay
their Solaris/HPUX fees.  I had to agree.

They're probably figuring people with IA-64's will be willing to pay
more, since IA-64 is aimed higher, at corporate enterprise level
computing.  They're probably right.

Whether they're right or not, one thing is for sure.  valgrind makes
purify irrelevant for Linux on IA32.  And since valgrind has a virtual
(he calls it "synthetic") IA32 cpu buried inside it, it won't port
trivially to other architectures.

OTOH, the patheway having been demosntrated once, personally I am
/sure/ valgrind-like tools will show up on more architectures.  It's
just too good not to grow.