# Getting started with Instruments

**URL:** <https://ifnotnil.com/t/getting-started-with-instruments/190>\
**Category:** Tutorials\
**Created:** [15 March 2020 02:09 UTC](https://ifnotnil.com/t/getting-started-with-instruments/190 "2020-03-15T02:09:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![npalardy](https://ifnotnil.com/user_avatar/ifnotnil.com/npalardy/32/10_2.png) [@npalardy](https://ifnotnil.com/u/npalardy)\
**Post date:** [15 March 2020 02:09 UTC](https://ifnotnil.com/t/getting-started-with-instruments/190/1 "2020-03-15T02:09:57Z")

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Beatrix has written a nice blog post on getting started with Instruments on macOS

> **[Moth Software](https://www.mothsoftware.com/blog_page.php?permalink=how-to-get-started-with-using-instruments)**
>
> Moth Software makes Mail Archiver X - the software that archives your emails on the Mac.

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**Author:** ![Garry](https://ifnotnil.com/user_avatar/ifnotnil.com/garry/32/2_2.png) [@Garry](https://ifnotnil.com/u/Garry)\
**Post date:** [18 March 2020 21:52 UTC](https://ifnotnil.com/t/getting-started-with-instruments/190/2 "2020-03-18T21:52:57Z")

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It is indeed a useful tutorial, thanks @beatrixwillius. I’m curious though, since your app is written in Xojo - why not just profile the app in the IDE?

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**Author:** ![npalardy](https://ifnotnil.com/user_avatar/ifnotnil.com/npalardy/32/10_2.png) [@npalardy](https://ifnotnil.com/u/npalardy)\
**Post date:** [18 March 2020 23:08 UTC](https://ifnotnil.com/t/getting-started-with-instruments/190/3 "2020-03-18T23:08:04Z")

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Instruments can does its gathering of stats way differently than Xojo’s profiler

Effectively Xojos profiler adds instrumentation code in every method, events, getter, setter etc and collates that  
This has pro’s and cons  
One is that the act of profiling slows your code down and so may hide certain runtime issues because of its overhead

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**Author:** ![beatrixwillius](https://ifnotnil.com/user_avatar/ifnotnil.com/beatrixwillius/32/24_2.png) [@beatrixwillius](https://ifnotnil.com/u/beatrixwillius)\
**Post date:** [19 March 2020 06:34 UTC](https://ifnotnil.com/t/getting-started-with-instruments/190/4 "2020-03-19T06:34:00Z")

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The profiler in Xojo is simple. Simple sometimes is good. Most of the time I want the whole information. In Instruments I can get very detailed information. Xojo is more blunt. But I’m going to expand on that.

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**Author:** ![Garry](https://ifnotnil.com/user_avatar/ifnotnil.com/garry/32/2_2.png) [@Garry](https://ifnotnil.com/u/Garry)\
**Post date:** [19 March 2020 14:23 UTC](https://ifnotnil.com/t/getting-started-with-instruments/190/5 "2020-03-19T14:23:39Z")

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Thanks again for article @beatrixwillius. I had never used Instruments before but I will be using it going forwards.

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**Author:** ![beatrixwillius](https://ifnotnil.com/user_avatar/ifnotnil.com/beatrixwillius/32/24_2.png) [@beatrixwillius](https://ifnotnil.com/u/beatrixwillius)\
**Post date:** [19 March 2020 14:36 UTC](https://ifnotnil.com/t/getting-started-with-instruments/190/6 "2020-03-19T14:36:54Z")

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More to come. The next instalment will tackle test preparation.

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**Author:** ![npalardy](https://ifnotnil.com/user_avatar/ifnotnil.com/npalardy/32/10_2.png) [@npalardy](https://ifnotnil.com/u/npalardy)\
**Post date:** [22 March 2020 15:50 UTC](https://ifnotnil.com/t/getting-started-with-instruments/190/7 "2020-03-22T15:50:03Z")

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Part 2  
The next part of my series of using Instruments is done: [http://www.mothsoftware.com/blog\_page.php?permalink=preparing-for-testing-with-instruments](http://www.mothsoftware.com/blog_page.php?permalink=preparing-for-testing-with-instruments)

Not as interesting as the interface. Nevertheless, test preparation is important. Next part will be actual testing.

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**Author:** ![npalardy](https://ifnotnil.com/user_avatar/ifnotnil.com/npalardy/32/10_2.png) [@npalardy](https://ifnotnil.com/u/npalardy)\
**Post date:** [25 March 2020 13:48 UTC](https://ifnotnil.com/t/getting-started-with-instruments/190/8 "2020-03-25T13:48:15Z")

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Part 3  
Got the third part of my series on Instruments done. After explaining the interface and doing some preparations today’s topic is doing some actual tests.

Article is here: [https://www.mothsoftware.com/blog\_page.php?permalink=testing-with-instruments](https://www.mothsoftware.com/blog_page.php?permalink=testing-with-instruments)