You only have to know two PCA commands to do simple PC sampling. PC sampling is typically the first kind of data you want to gather. It provides a good overview of where your program is spending the most time. To do PC sampling you must: 1. Compile your sources with the "/DEBUG" qualifier; This puts all the necessary symbolic information PCA needs into the object file. 2. The following steps specifies the PCA Collector as your program's "debugger": i Link your program with the "/DEBUG" qualifier; ii Define the logical name LIB$DEBUG as PCA$COLLECTOR; 3. Run your program; 4. Enter the "GO" command at the PCAC> prompt. The Collector will transfer control to your program just like the debugger does, and will store the data in a data file named your-image-name.PCA. 5. Enter "PCA your-image-name" at DCL level after your program has finished. This invokes the Analyzer. 6. Enter the "NEXT" command at the PCAA> prompt This will give you an annotated source listing and point to the line where your program spent the most time. Continue issuing NEXT commmands and "walk" from the most significant line ("hot spot") to the next one, and so on. See Traverse_ Commands for more information on moving from "hot-spot to hot-spot".