Introduction

Performance is an important design factor in all software products. If a program runs slowly or displays a spinning cursor, users are likely to become frustrated with the program and look for alternatives. Maintaining a reasonable level of performance requires some diligence on your part, but the earlier you start considering it, the easier it is to catch and fix problems.

Who Should Read This Document

Performance Overview is an essential guide for developers who are new to the area of software performance analysis. This document gives an overview of the factors that govern performance and offers an approach for identifying and fixing common performance problems. It also introduces you to the specific tools and documentation you can use to identify and fix performance problems.

Organization of This Document

This document has the following chapters:

Providing Feedback

If you have feedback about the documentation, you can provide it using the built-in feedback form at the bottom of every page.

If you encounter bugs in Apple software or documentation, you are encouraged to report them to Apple. You can also file enhancement requests to indicate features you would like to see in future revisions of a product or document. To file bugs or enhancement requests, go to the Bug Reporting page of the Apple Developer website:

http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter/

To file bugs, you must be registered as an Apple Developer. You can obtain a login name for free by following the instructions on the Apple Developer Registration page.

See Also

In addition to this document, there are several documents that cover more specific aspects of performance. You should investigate these documents for detailed tips on how to analyze and solve performance problems.