! Aware: default selections: Software Debugging and Testing

- Although software engineers have enjoyed tremendous productivity increases as more of their tasks have become automated, debugging remains as labor-intensive and painful as it was 50 years ago. An engineer or programmer must still set up hypotheses to use in identifying and correcting a failure's root cause. The author describes a new algorithm that promises to relieve programmers of the hit-or- miss approach to debugging. Delta Debugging uses the results of automated testing to systematically narrow the set of failure-inducing circumstances. Programmers supply a test function for each bug and hardcode it into any imperative language. The test function checks a set of changes to determine if the failure is present or if the outcome is unresolved, then feeds that information to the Delta Debugging code. As we discover more about the structure of these circumstances and the resulting causality chain, we come closer to passing much of the boredom and monotony of debugging onto machines. Debugging can be just as disciplined, systematic, and quantifiable as any other area of software engineering--which means that we should eventually be able to automate at least part of it. Ultimately, debugging may become as automated as testing--not only detecting failures, but also revealing how they came to be.

Software Component Certification ( John Morris, Gareth Lee, Kris Parker, Gary A. Bundell, Chiou Peng Lam ; IEEE Computer Magazine 2001-09)

- Most current process-based methods for certifying software require software publishers to "take oaths concerning which development standards and processes they will use." Jeffrey Voas, among others, has suggested that independent agencies�software certification laboratories (SCLs)�should take on a product certification role. The authors accept that this approach may work well for certain software distribution models, but they also observe that it cannot be applied to all software development. Third-party SCLs would add unnecessarily to the costs that small developers incur by speculating on the success of a given component. However, supplying complete test sets with components incurs little additional cost because component authors must generate the tests in the first place. Any extra effort adds value to a component because a tested component certainly offers a more marketable commodity. The authors believe that while SCLs have a place in large or safety-critical software projects, there will always be small commercial-software developments for which failure represents a moderate cost. In such cases, the cost of generating and inspecting tests can be justified.

A Modest Proposal for Software Testing ( Keith W. Miller ; IEEE Software Magazine 2001-03)

Validating and Improving Test-Case Effectiveness ( Yuri Chernak ; IEEE Software Magazine 2001-01)

- Effective software testing before release is crucial for product success. Based on a new metric and an associated methodology for in-process validation of test-case effectiveness, the author presents an approach to improving the software testing process.

Practical Applications of Statistical Process Control ( Edward F. Weller ; IEEE Software Magazine 2000-05)

- Applying quantitative methods such as statistical process control to software development projects can provide a positive cost�benefit return. The authors used SPC on inspection and test data to assess product quality during testing and to predict post-ship product quality for a major software release.

Clearing a Career Path for Software Testers ( Elaine J. Weyuker, Thomas J. Ostrand, JoAnne Brophy, Rathna Prasad ; IEEE Software Magazine 2000-03)

- As crucial as software testing is to product success, it gets little respect in most organizations. AT&T has taken its tradition of strong support for software testers a step further by establishing a formal career plan for testers that includes an ongoing education program.

What Is Software Testing? And Why Is It So Hard? ( James A. Whittaker ; IEEE Software Magazine 2000-01)

- Software testing is arguably the least understood part of the development process. Through a four-phase approach, the author shows why eliminating bugs is tricky and why testing is a constant trade-off.

Third-Party Testing and Stirrings of the New Software Engineering ( Bill Councill ; IEEE Software Magazine 1999-11)

Current Directions in Automatic Test-Pattern Generation ( Kwang-Ting Cheng, Angela Krstic ; IEEE Computer Magazine 1999-11)

- As designs move to higher levels of abstraction, traditional ATPG techniques must keep pace. We describe current ATPG techniques and efforts to adapt ATPG technology to handle deep-submicron faults and identify design errors and timing problems during design verification.

Toward Credible IT Testing and Certification ( Shukri A. Wakid, D. Richard Kuhn, Dolores R. Wallace ; IEEE Software Magazine 1999-07)

- Accessible, rigorous measurement and test methods are key to creating quality software and increasing IT market competition. The authors describe here how their work at NIST contributes to these goals.

Risk and Requirements-Based Testing ( James Bach ; IEEE Computer Magazine 1999-06)

Untested Software Threatens Infrastructures ( Jeffrey Voas ; IEEE Software Magazine 1999-03)

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Independent Verification and Validation ( James D. Arthur, Markus K. Gr�ner, Kelly J. Hayhurst, C. Michael Holloway ; IEEE Computer Magazine 1999-010)

- The authors are among the first to test whether independent verification and validation have a measurable beneficial effect on the development process.

Exploring the Software Development Trilogy ( Daniel Le M�tayer, Val�rie-Anne Nicolas, Olivier Ridoux ; IEEE Software Magazine 1998-11)

- We see software development as the construction of programs, properties, and data. This article sketches an automatic test generation method that takes inspiration program learning theory to exploit a richer combination of these elements. This is a step toward their concerted use in software development.

Guest Editors' Introduction: Component-Based Software Engineering ( Wojtek Kozaczynski, Grady Booch ; IEEE Software Magazine 1998-09)

- Components are "hot," and changing at a fast pace. Here are industry forecasts from two leaders in the field, followed by a state-of-the-practice overview and some of the latest work in CBSE.

Mining System Tests to Aid Software Maintenance ( Hira Agrawal, James L. Alberi, Joseph R. Horgan, J. Jenny Li, Saul London, W. Eric Wong, Sudipto Ghosh, Norman Wilde ; IEEE Computer Magazine 1998-07)

- Maintainers can use information from test analysis tools to help them understand, debug, and retest programs. The authors describe techniques and tools in Bellcore's χSuds, a system for understanding and diagnosing software bugs—including Y2K problems in legacy applications.

Validation, Verification, and Testing: Diversity Rules ( Barbara Kitchenham, Steve Linkman ; IEEE Software Magazine 1998-07)

Managing Conflict in System Diagnosis ( John W. Sheppard, William R. Simpson ; IEEE Computer Magazine 1998-03)

- As modern systems become more complex, it becomes more likely that system maintainers will be presented with conflicting information when testing them. Maintainers need advanced techniques to make an accurate diagnosis of the problem, especially in the face of large numbers of conflicts. This article describes two approaches to resolving conflicting test results: modified Dempster-Shafer statistical inference and certainty factors.

A Framework for Good Enough Testing ( James Bach ; IEEE Computer Magazine 1998-010)

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[Complete List of Articles]

Questions and Answers: Showing

Building a Test Automation System from Scratch? [2001/05/12]

At Ask Slashdot

Standards for Bug Severities? [2001/04/27]

At Ask Slashdot

How Do You Deal w/ "Heisenbugs"? [2001/04/11]

At Ask Slashdot

Is Source-Code Optimization Worthwhile? [ 1999/11/22]

At Ask Slashdot

Are There Problem Reporting Systems for Linux [ 1998/12/01]

At Ask Slashdot

Whatever happened to Unix's Writer's Workbench? [ 1998/09/21]

At Ask Slashdot

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error(1) - analyze and disperse compiler error messages {oss}

Man pages: NetBSD

Source code: OpenBSD FreeBSD

jot(1) - print sequential or random data {oss}

Man pages: FreeBSD NetBSD

Source code: OpenBSD FreeBSD

DDD - Data Display Debugger - DDD is a graphical front-end for command-line debuggers such as GDB, DBX, WDB, Ladebug, JDB, XDB, the Perl debugger, or the Python debugger. DDD shows data structures as graphs and plots. {(L)GPL}

At Sourceforge ( Mature)

GNUstep - and the GNUstep Base Library provide a graphical, object-oriented programming environment. {GPL,GNU}

At GNU project

gnustep-1.3.0 - Objective-C libraries based on the OpenStep standard (At FreeBSD Ports)

DDD - is a graphical front-end for GDB and other command-line debuggers. {GPL,GNU}

At GNU project

gdb - is a source-level debugger for C, C++ and Fortran. {GPL,GNU}

At GNU project

gdb-4.18 - symbolic debugger for multiple language frontends (At NetBSD packages collection)

DejaGnu - is a framework to test programs with a single front end for all tests. {GPL,GNU}

At GNU project

Nana - is a package for programming and testing debugging assertions. {GPL,GNU}

At GNU project

p5-Test-Simple-0.42 - Basic utilities for writing tests in perl

At FreeBSD Ports

py22-unit-1.4.1 - Unit testing framework for Python

At FreeBSD Ports

ruby-testunit-0.1.4 - A unit testing framework for Ruby

At FreeBSD Ports

flawfinder-0.21 - Examines source code looking for security weaknesses

At FreeBSD Ports

p5-Test-Harness-2.02 - Run perl standard test scripts with statistics

At FreeBSD Ports

bfbtester-2.0.1 - A security tool for testing binaries for overflows

At FreeBSD Ports

bfbtester-1.0.tgz - brute force binary tester (At OpenBSD 2.8_packages i386)
bfbtester-1.0.tgz - brute force binary tester (At OpenBSD 2.8_packages sparc)

error-20010616 - Analyze diagnostic error output from compilers and other processors

At FreeBSD Ports

bugbuddy-2.0.8_1 - A bug reporting tool for GNOME

At FreeBSD Ports

rats-1.3 - Source code auditing tool

At FreeBSD Ports

xxgdb-1.12 - An X window interface for gdb

At FreeBSD Ports

graphical X11 interface for gdb (At NetBSD packages collection)

dbregc-1.0.0 - IA32 hardware debug register calculator

At FreeBSD Ports

gnomecrash-0.0.5 - A small coredump analysis tool for GNOME

At FreeBSD Ports

gnomedebug-0.1.6 - A GNOME Debugging Framework (GDF)

At FreeBSD Ports

m3gdb-4.17 - The GNU debugger with support for Modula-3

At FreeBSD Ports

bfe-2mar2001 - X11 GUI for the bochs debugger

At FreeBSD Ports

bugseeker-1.0.2_1 - BugSeeker for Java 2, a debugger for Java applications

At FreeBSD Ports

bugseeker-demo-1.0.2 - A debugger for Java software (At FreeBSD Ports)

code_crusader-2.1.4_1 - A UNIX IDE for X inspired by MetroWerks CodeWarrior

At FreeBSD Ports

code_medic-1.0.4 - Provides an elegant graphical interface to gdb

At FreeBSD Ports

gvd-1.2.0 - GNU Visual Debugger, a graphical front-end to gdb and jdb

At FreeBSD Ports

ddd-3.3 - Data Display Debugger -- a common graphical front-end for GDB/DBX/XDB

At FreeBSD Ports

ddd-3.2.1.tgz - Data Display Debugger, graphical front-end for GDB, etc (At OpenBSD 2.8_packages i386)
ddd-3.2.1 (At NetBSD packages collection)

bc-gcc-2.7.2p1.0.2 - Gcc with bounds checking support for pointers and memory

At FreeBSD Ports

dejagnu-1.4.2 - Automated program/system tester

At FreeBSD Ports

dejagnu-1.3.tgz - GNU automated testing framework (At OpenBSD 2.7_packages i386)
dejagnu-19990614.tgz - dejagnu snapshot, needed for gcc (At OpenBSD 2.8_packages i386)
dejagnu-1.3.tgz - GNU automated testing framework (At OpenBSD 2.8_packages i386)
dejagnu-1.3.tgz - GNU automated testing framework (At OpenBSD 2.7_packages sparc)
dejagnu-1.3.tgz - GNU automated testing framework (At OpenBSD 2.8_packages m68k)
dejagnu-19990614.tgz - dejagnu snapshot, needed for gcc (At OpenBSD 2.8_packages m68k)
dejagnu-19990614.tgz - dejagnu snapshot, needed for gcc (At OpenBSD 2.8_packages sparc)
dejagnu-1.3.tgz - GNU automated testing framework (At OpenBSD 2.8_packages sparc)

display-1.2 - Runs command repeatedly; shows output (can conflict with ImageMagick)

At FreeBSD Ports

tet-3.3h - An test execution framework from the Open Group

At FreeBSD Ports

list - List-of-numbers generator {oss}

At comp.sources.unix at UUNET

rand - random pipe {GPL}

rand-1.7 - Utility to display files or streams in random order (At FreeBSD Ports)
(Info at freshmeat)

Argo/UML - Argo/UML -- Providing Cognitive Support for Object-Oriented Design {OpenSource}

(Info at freshmeat)

xwpe-alpha - A programming environment for UNIX systems {GPL}

xwpe-1.5.22a - A Borland-like IDE programming environment (At FreeBSD Ports)
xwpe-1.5.22a.tgz - powerful programming editor (At OpenBSD 2.7_packages i386)
xwpe-1.5.22a.tgz - powerful programming editor (At OpenBSD 2.8_packages i386)
xwpe-1.5.22a.tgz - powerful programming editor (At OpenBSD 2.7_packages m68k)
xwpe-1.5.22a.tgz - powerful programming editor (At OpenBSD 2.7_packages sparc)
xwpe-1.5.22a.tgz - powerful programming editor (At OpenBSD 2.8_packages m68k)
xwpe-1.5.22a.tgz - powerful programming editor (At OpenBSD 2.8_packages sparc)
(Info at freshmeat)

RHIDE - RHIDE is an integrated development environment for Linux. {GPL}

(Info at freshmeat)

kdbg - A KDE front end to GDB. {x,GPL}

kdbg-1.2.4 - A graphical user interface around gdb using KDE (At FreeBSD Ports)
kdbg-1.0.2.tgz - graphical debugger for kde (At OpenBSD 2.7_packages i386)
kdbg-1.0.2.tgz - graphical debugger for kde (At OpenBSD 2.8_packages i386)
kdbg-1.2.0 - Graphical User Interface around gdb using KDE (At NetBSD packages collection)

shuffle - Write lines of concatenated file(s) in random order

C-Forge IDE - Multi-user C/C++ integrated development environment {commercial}

(Info at freshmeat)

Jikes Debugger - multi-paneled graphical debugger for remotely executing Java programs

(Info at freshmeat)

gide-0.3.5 - GTK-based IDE for the C programming Language

At FreeBSD Ports

gIDE - Gtk-based Integrated Development Environment for C

Applications and Utilities

Others not displayed here

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nana-2.4 - Support for assertion checking and logging using GNU C and GDB

At FreeBSD Ports

improved support for assertions and logging in C and C++ (At NetBSD packages collection)

portlint-2.3.2 - A verifier for FreeBSD port directory

At FreeBSD Ports

linux_kdump-1.4 - Linux-compatability ktrace.out processor

At FreeBSD Ports

ups-3.35.b13 - Source level C debugger that runs under X11

At FreeBSD Ports

Libraries and Functions

Others not displayed here

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See also: Debugging and Tracing - (utilities, system and library calls which support debugging and tracing)

Software Quality - Software correctness and reliability

Software Maintenance - Perfecting, adapting, and improving existing systems

Debugging and Tracing - (utilities, system and library calls which support debugging and tracing)

Allocated memory debugging - Methods of debugging and tracing allocations of memory, detecting leaks, overruns, corruption, etc.

Up to Software Development - Tools and utilities for software development

Up to Activity specific - Gateway topic to software used in specific activities. (application software, business, professional, science, education, etc.)

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freshmeat.net : Topic : Software Development : Testing

freshmeat.net : Topic : Software Development : Quality Assurance

freshmeat.net : Topic : Software Development : Debuggers

(Metalab at UNC) /pub/linux/devel/debuggers/ - various debuggers

(Metalab at UNC) /pub/linux/devel/debuggers/ddd/ - Data Display Debugger interface to gdb

(Metalab at UNC) /pub/linux/X11/kde-apps/ide/ - integrated environments for developing software

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