# Curious about Feature **URL:** \ **Category:** GNU Radio\ **Created:** [June 3, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/curious-about-feature/242193 "2015-06-03T18:50:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![musicdenotation](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@musicdenotation](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/musicdenotation)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/curious-about-feature/242193/1 "2015-06-03T18:50:20Z")
Hi all, I just had this idea and would like to know if there is any major impediment to doing it. Could I add a little colored rectangle next to each input and output port that would change from green to yellow to red depending on the size left in that ports buffer? I feel it would help me narrow down sample rate problems or figuring out which blocks are slow in the chain. Would this be a relatively simple addition to the block class? v/r, Rich ---
**Author:** ![reback](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/b5ac83/32.png) [@reback](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/reback)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 7:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/curious-about-feature/242193/2 "2015-06-03T19:02:01Z")
Not sure how this would work–buffers, their allocation, and occupancy are a run-time thing done by the scheduler–utterly opaque to GRC. On 2015-06-03 12:48, Richard B. wrote: > [Discuss-gnuradio Info Page](https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio) [1] > Links: ---
**Author:** ![reback](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/b5ac83/32.png) [@reback](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/reback)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 7:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/curious-about-feature/242193/3 "2015-06-03T19:03:46Z")
Sounds like you want gr-perf-monitorx: which requires ControlPort (i.e. either an older release with the ICE backend, or current master with the Thrift backend). On Wed, Jun 3, 2015 at 12:48 PM, Richard B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![reback](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/b5ac83/32.png) [@reback](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/reback)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 7:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/curious-about-feature/242193/4 "2015-06-03T19:09:37Z")
Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is what I envisioned. From an OOT module I’ve been able to send various debug info out using std::cout. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s configured at runetime or compile time, because I’m sending the runtime values out. Instead of directing things like buffer sizes and item length to stdout, I’d like to feed them up the chain to be used in GRC. I’m not familiar with control ports, but you say something like this might be coming out in release 3.8 then? Rich On Wed, Jun 3, 2015 at 10:02 AM, Douglas G. \< ---
**Author:** ![reback](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/b5ac83/32.png) [@reback](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/reback)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 7:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/curious-about-feature/242193/5 "2015-06-03T19:23:39Z")
GRC, per-se, isn’t involved in the runtime environment of the generated python code. Making it more involved would be a non-trivial architectural change. But, at least _conceivably_, one could mate-up GRC with ControlPort in ways that are “integrated and creamy”. But with only basically 1 person maintaining GRC, there may be more important things on the plate… On 2015-06-03 13:08, Richard B. wrote: > Sounds like you want gr-perf-monitorx: which requires ControlPort (i.e. either > an older release with the ICE backend, or current master with the Thrift backend). > [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > [Discuss-gnuradio Info Page](https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio) [1] > > – > > Doug G. > [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) * * * Discuss-gnuradio mailing list [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) [Discuss-gnuradio Info Page](https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss-gnuradio) [1] Links: ---
**Author:** ![reback](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/b5ac83/32.png) [@reback](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/reback)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 7:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/curious-about-feature/242193/6 "2015-06-03T19:27:44Z")
gr-perfmonitorx is extraordinarily similar to what you are wanting, but has nothing to do with GRC. GRC can’t really do what you’re describing– treat it as a tool to generate python scripts to make gnuradio graphs and that’s it. You can see some screenshots and read a little bit about it in this paper: > **[p65.pdf](https://conferences.sigcomm.org/sigcomm/2013/papers/srif/p65.pdf)** > > 699.86 KB Support for it should be in current HEAD which will become a release way before 3.8. Depending on how much you want this feature you can try it out today. -Nathan On Wed, Jun 3, 2015 at 1:08 PM, Richard B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![reback](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/b5ac83/32.png) [@reback](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/reback)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 7:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/curious-about-feature/242193/7 "2015-06-03T19:35:20Z")
Thank you very much. Rich On Wed, Jun 3, 2015 at 10:26 AM, West, Nathan [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)