[TenTec] Software Testing

[Tom Badgett]

For those really interested in a nuts and bolts of software testing, 
consider "The Art of Software Testing," 2nd edition (Myers, Badgett, 
Thomas, et al), now available on Amazon. This is a classic text updated 
with many current examples and procedures.

73,
Tom
K4NOX

On Sep 20, 2004, at 8:30 AM, Mark Erbaugh wrote:

>> Has the art of software testing made any progress
>> since Dijkstra's conjecture (almost 40 years ago)
>> that it can only prove the presence of errors,
>> but not their absence?
>
> Software testing still can't (except in very trivial cases) prove the
> absence of errors, but there have been vast improvements in recent 
> years.
> Techniques such as test driven development all the developers to 
> thoroughly
> test (again, the thoroughness of the test is up to the skill of the
> developer) the software under development and more importantly, verify 
> that
> code written to add a new feature or fix a problem doesn't break a
> previously working feature.
>
> When a new version is ready for release to end users, automated test
> programs can simulate the testing of many users and can test the code 
> more
> thoroughly.  For example, if it takes a complex series of steps to 
> test a
> particular feature of a program, users are less likely to test all the
> possibilities at that stage than they are to test the features that 
> are more
> easily accessible. An automated test program doesn't care how complex 
> a step
> is.
>
> 73,
> Mark
>
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