Test suite design for code generation tools

• Published in: 18th IEEE International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, 2003. Proceedings pp. 286 - 290
• Main Authors: Stürmer, Ingo, Conrad, Mirko
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway, NJ, USA IEEE Press 06.10.2003; IEEE
• Series: ACM Conferences
• Subjects: Application software; Automatic programming; Certification; Character generation; Embedded software; Embedded system; Flowcharts; General and reference; General and reference > Cross-computing tools and techniques; General and reference > Cross-computing tools and techniques > Verification; Software and its engineering; Software and its engineering > Software creation and management; Software and its engineering > Software creation and management > Software development process management; Software and its engineering > Software creation and management > Software verification and validation; Software and its engineering > Software creation and management > Software verification and validation > Software defect analysis; Software and its engineering > Software creation and management > Software verification and validation > Software defect analysis > Software testing and debugging; Software design; Software tools; System testing; Theory of computation; Theory of computation > Semantics and reasoning; Theory of computation > Semantics and reasoning > Program reasoning; Theory of computation > Semantics and reasoning > Program reasoning > Program verification
• ISBN: 0769520359; 9780769520353
• ISSN: 1938-4300
• DOI: 10.1109/ASE.2003.1240322

In model-based development, executable specifications (models) are used for the design of the software to be developed. New techniques allow the automatic generation of compact code directly from the model via so-called code generators. However, at present, code generators do not possess the same quality characteristics as C or ADA compilers which have been proven in use. The use of test suites, which make it possible to check compilers systematically, is also a promising approach for code generators. This paper describes the design of such a test suite for code generators, and introduces a new testing approach for code generator transformations.