Symbolic Testing and the DISSECT Symbolic Evaluation System

Author

Howden, William E.

Author_Institution

Department of Applied Physics and Information Science, University of California

Issue

4

fYear

1977

fDate

7/1/1977 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

266

Lastpage

278

Abstract

Symbolic testing and a symbolic evaluation system called DISSECT are described. The principle features of DISSECT are outlined. The results of two classes of experiments in the use of symbolic evaluadon are summarized. Several classes of program errors are defined and the reliability of symbolic testing in finding bugs is related to the classes of errors. The relationship of symbolic evaluation systems like DISSECT to classes of program errors and to other kinds of program testing and program analysis tools is also discussed. Desirable improvements in DISSECT, whose importance was revealed by the experiments, are mentioned.

Keywords

Automated aids; data flow analysis; program correctness; program specifications; program testing; software errors; software reliability; symbolic evaluation; test data generation; Computer bugs; Data analysis; Error correction; Information science; Physics; Programming profession; Software reliability; Software testing; System testing; Table lookup; Automated aids; data flow analysis; program correctness; program specifications; program testing; software errors; software reliability; symbolic evaluation; test data generation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0098-5589

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TSE.1977.231144

Filename

1702443