What are some resources I can use to learn profiling/optimizing?

Question

I just inherited a C# project that runs way to slow and will have to start optimizing it. What I wanted to do first is learn a little more about profiling/optimizing since I

Answer 1

This won't help you much on C#, but the OS X Shark tools (comes with the developer tools from Apple) are the Best profiling tools I've come accross. Almost fun to use!

As to profiling, there's two ways of approach. First, you should understand the software. The data structures especially. Don't start optimizing unless you understand it first.

Second, you shall measure (which seems you're about to do). I've been mislead by my gut instinct almost always; places I would regard as secondary are the time takers. This also means when you're optimizing you're always optimizing for a certain set of test cases you run. The selection of such cases is important.