@MISC{Howden76experimentswith, author = {William E. Howden}, title = {Experiments with a symbolic evaluation system}, year = {1976} }
Share
OpenURL
Abstract
Symbolic evaluation techniques can be used to determine the cumulative effects of a program's calculations on the branching predicates and output variables in the program. If the evaluation techniques are carefully and selectively applied, they can be used to generate revealing symbolic representations of the computations carried out by the paths in a program, and of the systems of predicates that describe the input data that causes program paths to be executed. A symbolic evaluation system called DISSECT is described which can be used to analyze FORTRAN programs. The system includes a sophisticated command language that allows the user to selectively apply symbolic evaluation techniques to different program paths and subpaths. The command language allows the user to carry out different levels of symbolic testing of a program and to construct systems of predicates that can be used to automate the generation of numeric test data. Experiments with the system which illustrate its advantages and limitations are included. DISSECT can be used to carry out a systematic, documented reliability analysis of a program. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential use of systems like DISSECT as the basic software certification tool in the software development process.