Ubuntu QA:
BlogBrainstormPackage status
Log in
Ubuntu QA
The Ubuntu community has contributed 22700 ideas, 138270 comments, 2629576 votes
Idea sandbox Idea sandbox
Popular ideas Popular ideas
Ideas in development Ideas in development
Implemented ideas Implemented ideas
Idea #14015: Eclipse Black Box Function testing plugin

Written by Auzy the 3 Oct 08 at 12:16. Related project: Eclipse. Status: New
Rationale
For Non coders:
Automated Black box testing basically strongly reduces the chances of things crashing, increases stability, and security. It specifically prevents regressions. I haven't seen any good tools to do this in IDE's.

Eclipse is a cross-platform development tool, that was founded by IBM, MERANT, QNX Software Systems, Rational Software, Red Hat, SuSE, TogetherSoft and Webgain. And is probably the only real competitor against Microsoft's and Apple's solutions.


For Coders:
Black box testing means that you treat a function as a box, and test the bounds of the parameters on it, and a few inside. You don't go and check each line of code. So: int ConvertToDogYears (unsigned int age, char * name), you would test 0,1, a few inside, large numbers, and max ages. In fact, you could also test NULL for name (because regardless if by design it might never receive NULL, it should still test for it).

I propose we make it possible to right click a function in eclipse, and set a few examples of inputs/results and a range to automatically test. This way, if all your functions parameter bounds and a few example tests. Some tests such as passing NULL pointers and seeing if it crashes could be tested too.

This would give us an automated way of testing for regressions, and could also help identify functions which are capable of segfaulting, or which buffer overflow.

The system can also automatically test the maximum values for C type variables, to ensure they are fine, and do tests automatically, such as pass NULL pointers and ensure that the function doesn't try to write to it.

Because if every function cant crash regardless of what is passed to it, it means that we will all benefit. And it means we will have a way for the compiler to test the program for us, and uncover bugs, which might take hackers to uncover (like passing a 3000 character string)
Tags: (none)

22
votes
up equal down
Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #14015
Written by Auzy the 3 Oct 08 at 12:16.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #14015 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

Propose your solution

Attachments
No attachments.


Duplicates


Comments
andruk (Idea reviewer) wrote on the 8 Feb 09 at 20:03
Is this different from fuzz testing?

Either way, I like the idea.


Post your comment