| dc.contributor.author | Karam, Marcel R. | en_US |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2014-10-21T12:37:59Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2000 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2000 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.other | AAINQ77596 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10222/55886 | |
| dc.description | Visual dataflow programming languages have become an important topic of research in recent years, yielding a variety of research systems and commercial applications [9] [10] [21] [80]. As with any programming language, be it visual or textual, programs written in visual dataflow languages like Prograph may contain faults. Thus, to ensure the correct functioning of visual dataflow programs, testing is required. Despite this valid observation, we find no discussion in the literature that addressed a specific testing methodology for visual dataflow programs. We did find, however, adequate discussions related to testing methodologies for imperative, declarative, and form-based languages. | en_US |
| dc.description | In this thesis, we investigated, from structural testing perspectives, differences between imperative and visual dataflow languages. Our investigations revealed opportunities to adapt code-based structural testing to test visual dataflow languages. Based on that adaptation, we have developed an integrated Dataflow Testing Tool (DFTT) and used it to visually and empirically validate our testing results. Those results showed that our structural-based testing methodology, in particular the "All-du paths" testing, provide an important error detection ability in visual dataflow languages. To communicate the testedness of a visual dataflow program, we provided a visual testing and validating environment in the DFTT by using visual annotations to reflect, based on a certain testing criterion, the testedness of an operation, a predicate operation, or a datalink. | en_US |
| dc.description | We also investigated from a data-flow testing perspective, differences between code-based object oriented languages and visual object-flow languages in the context of Prograph. Our findings revealed that, analogous to code-based object oriented languages, there are three levels of testing instance variable data-flow interactions in visual object-flow languages. In each level we showed how code-based data-flow testing techniques can be adapted to collect that level's appropriate du-chains. As for our new research directions, we have proposed an Integrated Testing and Visual Validating Environment (ITVVE) for imperative languages that allows users/testers to visualize both tested and untested du-associations. We also showed that the ITVVE provides a visual testing environment that facilitates the task of approximating the location of errors in the code. | en_US |
| dc.description | Thesis (Ph.D.)--DalTech - Dalhousie University (Canada), 2000. | en_US |
| dc.language | eng | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Dalhousie University | en_US |
| dc.publisher | | en_US |
| dc.subject | Computer Science. | en_US |
| dc.title | Structural-based testing methodologies for visual dataflow languages. | en_US |
| dc.type | text | en_US |
| dc.contributor.degree | Ph.D. | en_US |
