Collaborative: Exploiting Component Contracts for Static Analysis and Testing

协作：开发组件契约Robert Bruce Findler/Matthew flatt尽管测试在开发过程中扮演着核心角色，但当前的编程语言和环境几乎没有为测试提供任何支持。大多数测试研究都集中在从程序规范生成测试输入和测试oracle上，但是程序规范很难生成和维护。因此，语言和环境设计者仍然没有动力去支持规范，并且失去了支持测试的机会。契约提供了绕过规范问题的途径。契约是与基本编程语言一起工作的轻量级规范的一种形式，也就是说，程序员不需要学习编写规范的特殊逻辑。在程序执行时监视契约，这意味着程序员被迫维护与代码的契约。由于契约本质上是断言语句的泛化，经验表明程序员会使用它们。研究人员关注契约作为自动测试套件生成的规范语言。为了验证他们的调查，他们将扩展DrScheme编程环境，以支持组件边界的单元测试。此外，他们将使用新的测试基础设施来测试DrScheme本身。

0306270/0306286Collaborative: Exploiting Component Contracts Robert Bruce Findler/Matthew FlattDespite the central role of testing in the development process, current programming languages and environments provide scarcely any support for testing. Most testing research has focused on generatingtest inputs and test oracles from program specifications, but program specifications are difficult to produce and maintain. Consequently, language and environment designers remain unmotivated to support specifications, and opportunities to support testing are lost.Contracts offer a route around the specification problem. Contracts are a form of lightweight specification that work with the base programming language, i.e., there is no need for the programmer to learn a special logic for writing specifications. Contracts are monitored as the program executes, which means that the programmer is forced to maintain contracts with the code. Since contracts are essentially a generalization of assert statements, experience suggests that programmers will use them.The investigators focus on contracts as a specification language for automatic test suite generation. To validate their investigations, they will extend the DrScheme programming environment to support unittesting at component boundaries. In addition, they will use the new testing infrastructure to test DrScheme itself.