Reg. Testing tools

I am currently carrying out my research work in software testing. I
have taken C programs as my subject program and I am doing test case
minimization. I am very new to testing. What are the tools I require
for carrying out testing activities. I want freely downloadable tools,

On Aug 22, 7:15*am, sniktha <snikthaku...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am currently carrying out my research work in software testing. I
> have taken C programs as my subject program and I am doing test case
> minimization. I am very new to testing. What are the tools I require
> for carrying out testing activities. I want freely downloadable tools,

Test case minimization is an interesting topic. Let's start by asking
this: instead of running a /minimal/ number of test cases, why would
you not want to /maximize/ the number of test cases you perform? Or
why would you not want to run an /appropriate/ number of test cases?

---Michael B.

On Aug 26, 12:07*pm, Michael Bolton <michael.a.bol...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> On Aug 22, 7:15*am, sniktha <snikthaku...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I am currently carrying out my research work in software testing. I
> > have taken C programs as my subject program and I am doing test case
> > minimization. I am very new to testing. What are the tools I require
> > for carrying out testing activities. I want freely downloadable tools,
>
> Test case minimization is an interesting topic. *Let's start by asking
> this: *instead of running a /minimal/ number of test cases, why would
> you not want to /maximize/ the number of test cases you perform? *Or
> why would you not want to run an /appropriate/ number of test cases?
>
> ---Michael B.

I dont get your point clearly.. Anyway intially test cases are created
that are minimal. During maintenance phase new test cases are added
that mey become redundant with the exisiting once. Thats why we need
test suite minimization

I'd like to extend Einstein's quote to testing. Testing should be made as
simple as possible. No simpler
Minimization has pitfalls IMO
"sniktha" <snikthakumar@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:e2356063-4299-4746-b408-61e1e019c764@z11g2000prl.googlegroups.com...
On Aug 26, 12:07 pm, Michael Bolton <michael.a.bol...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> On Aug 22, 7:15 am, sniktha <snikthaku...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I am currently carrying out my research work in software testing. I
> > have taken C programs as my subject program and I am doing test case
> > minimization. I am very new to testing. What are the tools I require
> > for carrying out testing activities. I want freely downloadable tools,
>
> Test case minimization is an interesting topic. Let's start by asking
> this: instead of running a /minimal/ number of test cases, why would
> you not want to /maximize/ the number of test cases you perform? Or
> why would you not want to run an /appropriate/ number of test cases?
>
> ---Michael B.

I dont get your point clearly.. Anyway intially test cases are created
that are minimal. During maintenance phase new test cases are added
that mey become redundant with the exisiting once. Thats why we need
test suite minimization

On Aug 26, 3:46*am, sniktha <snikthaku...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I dont get your point clearly.. Anyway intially test cases are created
> that are minimal. During maintenance phase new test cases are added
> that mey become redundant with the exisiting once. Thats why we need
> test suite minimization

Well, let's start over.

>I am currently carrying out my research work in software testing. I have taken C programs as my subject program and I am doing test case minimization.. I am very new to testing. What are the tools I require for carrying out testing activities. I want freely downloadable tools,

Asking "what are the tools I require for carrying out testing
activities" is a question that people often ask when they're new to
testing. But testing comprises many different activities, and many
different classes of activities among them. The one thing that they
have in common is that they're motivated by obtaining or organizing
some kind of information about the thing that you're testing. Testing
tools might help you to generate data; to keep track of test results;
to search and sort and parse log files; to feed tables of data to a
program; to instrument a program for coverage information; to assess
performance.

Testing tools don't read your mind; they don't produce a right answer
outside of some specific context; they don't assess quality; they
don't tell you the right values to test with. They might (/might/)
help you with those tasks, but they won't do them.

So your question, alas, isn't answerable without identifying the
problem--or problems--that you want to solve, and the part that you
can't do with your own brain and fingers.

---Michael B.

sniktha wrote:

> On Aug 26, 12:07Â*pm, Michael Bolton <michael.a.bol...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>> On Aug 22, 7:15Â*am, sniktha <snikthaku...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > I am currently carrying out my research work in software testing. I
>> > have taken C programs as my subject program and I am doing test case
>> > minimization. I am very new to testing. What are the tools I require
>> > for carrying out testing activities. I want freely downloadable tools,
>>
>> Test case minimization is an interesting topic. Â*Let's start by asking
>> this: Â*instead of running a /minimal/ number of test cases, why would
>> you not want to /maximize/ the number of test cases you perform? Â*Or
>> why would you not want to run an /appropriate/ number of test cases?
>>
>> ---Michael B.
>
> I dont get your point clearly.. Anyway intially test cases are created
> that are minimal. During maintenance phase new test cases are added
> that mey become redundant with the exisiting once. Thats why we need
> test suite minimization
By "minimal" do you mean 'just a few' or 'the smallest number that fully
cover what I want to test'?

If the former, then minimizing the number of test cases isn't your problem -
you need more thorough testing.

If the latter, then yes, you could easily have duplicate tests, which is a
waste of time - both time running the test and writing it.

Could you look at it as a problem of code reuse (or lack thereof)? There
are tools that will look for duplicate code (I know IntelliJ can do it for
Java, there's bound to be others). If you ran that on your unit tests
would it turn up any of your duplicates? That wouldn't keep you from
writing the duplicate test; it'd only highlight the duplicate test after
you'd written it (assuming it does indeed find it).

Is the best way to not write a duplicate test in the 1st place prevention?
write tests that cover the changes you're going to make, and nothing else.

al

--
Al Dunstan, Software Engineer
OptiMetrics, Inc.
3115 Professional Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-5131

Hi,

I agreed there're no tools that will read your mind and understand
what you want.
Due to your problem you should use some techniques from test design to
understand what your current test coverage is and what reasonable test
cases amount is.

For example: Pair-wise techniques

I don't think you find any useful tool that will give proper answer.
It may be I'm wrong. Please let me know If you find it such tool.

Thanks,
Mykhailo Poliarush
http://polusok.blogspot.com

On Aug 29, 4:47*pm, "A. W. Dunstan" <n...@spam.thanks> wrote:
> sniktha wrote:
> > On Aug 26, 12:07*pm, Michael Bolton <michael.a.bol...@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >> On Aug 22, 7:15*am, sniktha <snikthaku...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >> > I am currently carrying out my research work in software testing. I
> >> > have taken C programs as my subject program and I am doing test case
> >> > minimization. I am very new to testing. What are the tools I require
> >> > for carrying out testing activities. I want freely downloadable tools,
>
> >> Test case minimization is an interesting topic. *Let's start by asking
> >> this: *instead of running a /minimal/ number of test cases, why would
> >> you not want to /maximize/ the number of test cases you perform? *Or
> >> why would you not want to run an /appropriate/ number of test cases?
>
> >> ---Michael B.
>
> > I dont get your point clearly.. Anyway intially test cases are created
> > that are minimal. During maintenance phase new test cases are added
> > that mey become redundant with the exisiting once. Thats why we need
> > test suite minimization
>
> By "minimal" do you mean 'just a few' or 'the smallest number that fully
> cover what I want to test'?
>
> If the former, then minimizing the number of test cases isn't your problem -
> you need more thorough testing.
>
> If the latter, then yes, you could easily have duplicate tests, which is a
> waste of time - both time running the test and writing it.
>
> Could you look at it as a problem of code reuse (or lack thereof)? *There
> are tools that will look for duplicate code (I know IntelliJ can do it for
> Java, there's bound to be others). *If you ran that on your unit tests
> would it turn up any of your duplicates? *That wouldn't keep you from
> writing the duplicate test; it'd only highlight the duplicate test after
> you'd written it (assuming it does indeed find it).
>
> Is the best way to not write a duplicate test in the 1st place prevention?
> write tests that cover the changes you're going to make, and nothing else..
>
> al
>
> --
> Al Dunstan, Software Engineer
> OptiMetrics, Inc.
> 3115 Professional Drive
> Ann Arbor, MI *48104-5131

On Aug 26, 7:07 am, Michael Bolton <michael.a.bol...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Aug 22, 7:15 am, sniktha <snikthaku...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I am currently carrying out my research work in software testing. I
> > have taken C programs as my subject program and I am doing test case
> > minimization. I am very new to testing. What are the tools I require
> > for carrying out testing activities. I want freely downloadable tools,
>
> Test case minimization is an interesting topic. Let's start by asking
> this: instead of running a /minimal/ number of test cases, why would
> you not want to /maximize/ the number of test cases you perform? Or
> why would you not want to run an /appropriate/ number of test cases?
>
> ---Michael B.

At least because minimization of testing is more a complex task than
creating as many tests as possible At least if you mean just the
number of tests, not their coverage. I believe an author of this
thread just forgot to mention the second part of the problem. I assume
the task is to create minimum tests that provide due coverage. Due
coverage can be represented in one of known structure coverage
measurement methods.

----
Best Wishes,
Vladimir

On Aug 22, 2:15 pm, sniktha <snikthaku...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I am currently carrying out my research work in software testing. I
> have taken C programs as my subject program and I am doing test case
> minimization. I am very new to testing. What are the tools I require
> for carrying out testing activities. I want freely downloadable tools,

Sniktha, I would strongly recommend reading "Marick, Brian (1995). The
Craft of Software Testing: Subsystem Testing Including Object-based
and Object-oriented Testing. Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0131774115" before
approaching this problem.

----
Best Wishes,
Vladimir

>>>Asking "what are the tools I require for carrying out testing
activities" is a question that people often ask when they're new to
testing.

Most importantantly, question that should be asked is "What kind of
testing activities that I want tools to help me". Ask and probe about
"testing" first then ask what tools to use. How would you react if an
upcoming doctor/surgen were to ask "What tools I should use to
diagnose the patients" - he should sufficiently think and work deep
into the practice of medicine first then ask about "tools".

Shrini Kulkarni