Collaborative: Exploiting component contracts for static analysis and testing

0306270/0306286协作：开发组件契约Robert Bruce Findler/Matthew Flattr尽管测试在开发过程中扮演着中心角色，但当前的编程语言和环境几乎不提供任何对测试的支持。大多数测试研究都集中在从程序规格说明生成测试输入和测试预言，但程序规格说明很难生成和维护。因此，语言和环境设计者仍然没有动力支持规范，并且失去了支持测试的机会。合同提供了一条绕过规范问题的途径。契约是一种与基本编程语言一起工作的轻量级规范形式，即程序员不需要学习编写规范的特殊逻辑。契约在程序执行时被监视，这意味着程序员被迫维护与代码的契约。由于合同本质上是断言语句的泛化，经验表明程序员将使用它们。研究人员将合同作为自动测试用例集生成的规范语言。为了验证他们的研究，他们将扩展DrPlan编程环境，以支持组件边界的单元测试。此外，他们还将使用新的测试基础设施来测试DrProgram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 supportspecifications, 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 forautomatic 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 newtesting infrastructure to test DrScheme itself.