A prototype implementation of the AUnit test automation framework for alloy

Alloy is a declarative language based on relational first-order logic. Unlike commonly used procedural languages, the testing criteria of declarative languages like Alloy has remained largely ad hoc. Recent work on the AUnit test automation framework introduced a foundation for testing Alloy models. This report presents our effort on developing a prototype implementation of AUnit based on the standard Alloy distribution. Our implementation of AUnit has all core functionalities for writing unit tests, running all tests, showing the test execution results including the number of tests ran, the number of tests failed, coverage obtained (which is highlighted using coloring), all test requirements, and all uncovered requirements. We compute coverage for signatures, fields, predicates and specifically for primitive Booleans and quantified formulas. Our implementation can allow users to check the quality of their models in the spirit of traditional unit testing.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

An Automated Framework for Structural Test-data Generation

Structural testing criteria are mandated in many software development standards and guidelines. The process of generating test data to achieve 100% coverage of a given structural coverage metric is labour-intensive and expensive. This paper presents an approach to automate the generation of such test data. The test-data generation is based on the application of a dynamic optimisation-based search for the required test data. The same approach can be generalised to solve other test-data generation problems. Three such applications are discussed-boundary value analysis, assertion/run-time exception testing, and component re-use testing. A prototype tool-set has been developed to facilitate the automatic generation of test data for these structural testing problems. The results of preliminary experiments using this technique and the prototype tool-set are presented and show the efficiency and effectiveness of this approac

High-speed civil transport flight- and propulsion-control technological issues

Technology advances required in the flight and propulsion control system disciplines to develop a high speed civil transport (HSCT) are identified. The mission and requirements of the transport and major flight and propulsion control technology issues are discussed. Each issue is ranked and, for each issue, a plan for technology readiness is given. Certain features are unique and dominate control system design. These features include the high temperature environment, large flexible aircraft, control-configured empennage, minimizing control margins, and high availability and excellent maintainability. The failure to resolve most high-priority issues can prevent the transport from achieving its goals. The flow-time for hardware may require stimulus, since market forces may be insufficient to ensure timely production. Flight and propulsion control technology will contribute to takeoff gross weight reduction. Similar technology advances are necessary also to ensure flight safety for the transport. The certification basis of the HSCT must be negotiated between airplane manufacturers and government regulators. Efficient, quality design of the transport will require an integrated set of design tools that support the entire engineering design team