Parallel Stacks

Parallel Stacks is a Visual Studio Code extension that visualizes call stacks from multiple threads in a single, merged graph view. It is inspired by the "Parallel Stacks" window in Visual Studio, serving as a powerful tool for debugging multi-threaded C/C++ applications.

🛠 Usage

1. Start Debugging: Launch your debug session (works best with C++/Native debuggers).
2. Break Execution: Hit a breakpoint or pause execution manually.
3. Open View: Launch the command "Show Parallel Stacks" from the Command Palette (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + P).
4. Interact:
   • Scroll/Pinch to zoom.
   • Click-and-drag to pan.
   • Click on frames to open the file.
   • Hover to highlight branches.

🚀 Features

🔍 Unified Graph Visualization

• Multi-thread Aggregation: Groups threads with identical call stacks into a single branch to reduce complexity.
• Top-Down & Bottom-Up: View the execution flow as a tree, making it easy to identify common ancestors and execution paths.
• Dynamic Zoom & Pan: Fluidly explore complex multi-threaded environments with full zoom and pan support.

⚡ Interactive Debugging

• Active Frame Highlight: Instantly see which stack frame is currently active in both the graph and the editor (highlighted with a green gutter arrow).
• Source Code Navigation: Click on any node (stack frame) to navigate directly to the corresponding line in your source code.
• Branch Tracing: Hover over any node to highlight the entire path down to the root, making stack tracing effortless.
• Thread Management: Split out specific threads into their own branches or merge them back for custom visualization.

🎨 Modern UI/UX

• VS Code Theme Integration: Automatically uses your active editor colors for a seamless experience.
• Thread Labels: Displays Thread IDs and names (e.g., 1: main) directly above leaf nodes.
• Compact Layout: Designed for high-density information display, similar to professional IDE tools.

🏗 Build and Installation

For developers looking to contribute or build from source:

1. Clone and install:

   git clone https://github.com/JackKuo-tw/parallel-stacks.git
   npm install

2. Build:

   npm run compile

3. Run: Press F5 in VS Code to launch a new window with the extension active.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

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Maintained by JackKuo-tw