Last Summer, I also proposed a Google SOC project for profiling, called Parallel Profiling Support for GHC. This project was denied for the Google SOC mostly due to the scope of the project and the concern that the project would take far longer than the Summer. Yes, I'm aware of that trap. However, I think the ideas I proposed (rather vaguely, I have to admit) could be handled in three months, especially since I can familiarise myself with the relevant parts of the rts before actual work starts, and the first part of the task doesn't even require significant changes, if any.
ThreadScope: http://raintown.org/?page_id=132 I know about that one, that's another reason why I wanted to explore the area of more user-friendly space profiling instead: it seems somewhat neglected. Of course that might be because people don't feel an urgent need for more powerful tools, but I can't tell that without asking the community.
The EventLog framework (used by ThreadScope) is now available in the GHC RTS ($GHC_ROOT/rts/eventlog) and has been committed to GHC HEAD. Thanks for the pointer, I'll check it out.
Just to reiterate, make sure that the scope of your project is well-defined. :) Of course I intend to list some specific subtasks in my proposal, preferably the kind that makes life much easier with minimal changes to the codebase. :)
If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll see if I have some after looking at the code. For the time being there's only the one I'd ask anyone: how do you think space profiling could be made more convenient?
Gergely -- http://www.fastmail.fm - Access your email from home and the web