TIME SERIES FIGURE

The Time Series figure (example) shows sequences of values and time intervals over time and supports all of the standard buttons, mouse operations, and play control features. Multiple streams (of values and time intervals) can be selected during figure creation or can be subsequently added via drag-and-drop. In the case of multiple streams, there are three viewing modes which one can cycle through with the mode button described below. In the first mode, all time series (both values and time intervals) are drawn in a single shared data area. Multiple vertical axes (of different units) will appear both left and right of the plot area. In the second mode, all the value streams are drawn in one common area but each time interval stream is shown in its separate display area (which we call strips). In the final mode, value streams that are of different types are also displayed in their own strips.

The Time Series view can optionally show a summary of a sample stream (a series of connecting bounding polygon that show the range of the values over time) as a shaded region. The summary can be shown by itself or along with the raw data which continues to be plotted as a line or as a scatter-plot.

Time Series can also represent interval data, which is shown as shaded regions (vertical bands of colors) for the period when the interval is on. This is often useful for seeing how certain quantities (value streams) behave during certain phases of the computation. Because the time scale of the time intervals may be very different from that of the displayed area, it is difficult to show the data consistently at all time scales. To alleviate this problem, each time interval stream is actually displayed in two different areas. The top area is a narrow strip that shows if there is any activity occurring at all. The bottom area is a predominant area and the intensity of the coloring corresponds to the level of activity occurring on. For example, suppose 1000 seconds of data is shown in a 1000 pixel wide window and that every 10 seconds there is an activity that lasts for 5 seconds. Then in the top area, there will be a solid tick every 10 pixels while the lower area will show a faint (half-intensity) strip every 10 pixels. Below is a real-life example of a time interval stream showing activity on a processor. We can see that the upper strip is nearly solid, indicating that the processor is generally active ( to the extent that there is at least some activity in each time window that each pixel represents). In the main area, the intensity varies showing that the level of activity varies overall.

The configure button brings up a dialog box that allows selection of display styles (e.g. scatter plot vs line), the range of the axes, and the colors of each stream.

Special Buttons and Controls

Special Mouse Actions