286,595 research outputs found
Differentially Testing Soundness and Precision of Program Analyzers
In the last decades, numerous program analyzers have been developed both by
academia and industry. Despite their abundance however, there is currently no
systematic way of comparing the effectiveness of different analyzers on
arbitrary code. In this paper, we present the first automated technique for
differentially testing soundness and precision of program analyzers. We used
our technique to compare six mature, state-of-the art analyzers on tens of
thousands of automatically generated benchmarks. Our technique detected
soundness and precision issues in most analyzers, and we evaluated the
implications of these issues to both designers and users of program analyzers
A Survey on Software Testing Techniques using Genetic Algorithm
The overall aim of the software industry is to ensure delivery of high
quality software to the end user. To ensure high quality software, it is
required to test software. Testing ensures that software meets user
specifications and requirements. However, the field of software testing has a
number of underlying issues like effective generation of test cases,
prioritisation of test cases etc which need to be tackled. These issues demand
on effort, time and cost of the testing. Different techniques and methodologies
have been proposed for taking care of these issues. Use of evolutionary
algorithms for automatic test generation has been an area of interest for many
researchers. Genetic Algorithm (GA) is one such form of evolutionary
algorithms. In this research paper, we present a survey of GA approach for
addressing the various issues encountered during software testing.Comment: 13 Page
Plan-based delivery composition in intelligent tutoring systems for introductory computer programming
In a shell system for the generation of intelligent tutoring systems, the instructional model that one applies should be variable independent of the content of instruction. In this article, a taxonomy of content elements is presented in order to define a relatively content-independent instructional planner for introductory programming ITS's; the taxonomy is based on the concepts of programming goals and programming plans. Deliveries may be composed by the instantiation of delivery templates with the content elements. Examples from two different instructional models illustrate the flexibility of this approach. All content in the examples is taken from a course in COMAL-80 turtle graphics
Towards Automated Boundary Value Testing with Program Derivatives and Search
A natural and often used strategy when testing software is to use input
values at boundaries, i.e. where behavior is expected to change the most, an
approach often called boundary value testing or analysis (BVA). Even though
this has been a key testing idea for long it has been hard to clearly define
and formalize. Consequently, it has also been hard to automate.
In this research note we propose one such formalization of BVA by, in a
similar way as to how the derivative of a function is defined in mathematics,
considering (software) program derivatives. Critical to our definition is the
notion of distance between inputs and outputs which we can formalize and then
quantify based on ideas from Information theory.
However, for our (black-box) approach to be practical one must search for
test inputs with specific properties. Coupling it with search-based software
engineering is thus required and we discuss how program derivatives can be used
as and within fitness functions.
This brief note does not allow a deeper, empirical investigation but we use a
simple illustrative example throughout to introduce the main ideas. By
combining program derivatives with search, we thus propose a practical as well
as theoretically interesting technique for automated boundary value (analysis
and) testing
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Using formal methods to support testing
Formal methods and testing are two important approaches that assist in the development of high quality software. While traditionally these approaches have been seen as rivals, in recent
years a new consensus has developed in which they are seen as complementary. This article reviews the state of the art regarding ways in which the presence of a formal specification can be used to assist testing
Engineering simulations for cancer systems biology
Computer simulation can be used to inform in vivo and in vitro experimentation, enabling rapid, low-cost hypothesis generation and directing experimental design in order to test those hypotheses. In this way, in silico models become a scientific instrument for investigation, and so should be developed to high standards, be carefully calibrated and their findings presented in such that they may be reproduced. Here, we outline a framework that supports developing simulations as scientific instruments, and we select cancer systems biology as an exemplar domain, with a particular focus on cellular signalling models. We consider the challenges of lack of data, incomplete knowledge and modelling in the context of a rapidly changing knowledge base. Our framework comprises a process to clearly separate scientific and engineering concerns in model and simulation development, and an argumentation approach to documenting models for rigorous way of recording assumptions and knowledge gaps. We propose interactive, dynamic visualisation tools to enable the biological community to interact with cellular signalling models directly for experimental design. There is a mismatch in scale between these cellular models and tissue structures that are affected by tumours, and bridging this gap requires substantial computational resource. We present concurrent programming as a technology to link scales without losing important details through model simplification. We discuss the value of combining this technology, interactive visualisation, argumentation and model separation to support development of multi-scale models that represent biologically plausible cells arranged in biologically plausible structures that model cell behaviour, interactions and response to therapeutic interventions
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