The Investigation On A Semi-Automatic Tool For Generating Normal Forms For Object-Oriented Software Testing At Class Level

Along with the wide application of Object-Oriented technology, Object-Oriented testing has been attached importance to increasingly. The testing for Object-Oriented software contains four levels: algorithmic level, class level, cluster level, and system level. Where, the testing of object-oriented software at the algorithmic and system levels is similar to conventional program testing. Testing at the class and cluster levels poses new challenges.The class-level testing based on algebraic specification needs to use normal forms. The supervisor of the author proposed a scheme for generating normal forms called GNF, which was based on algebraic specification. With the scheme, we could semi-automatically generate normal forms and reject false normal form at any time in the process of constructing normal forms. To a certain extent, it reduced the number of test cases and improved the efficiency of the test.Using Logic programming, it is relatively convenient to implement GNF scheme. As to this, the scheme has been a complete algorithm to generate normal forms. However, this scheme can also be implemented through the way of Object-Oriented programming. As to this, it needs some necessary sub-algorithms, such as operations division, axioms classification, conditions dealing with and items matching. In this paper, these sub-algorithms and the corresponding data structure are constructed. Then, the thesis describes the design and implementation of a prototype, which is a semi-automatic aided tool to generate normal forms for testing object-oriented software at class level. The experiment and its result analysis on the prototype are explained. By this experiment, this method is verified to be feasible. The consistent level between normal forms of experiment and normal form modes of artificial analysis is also clarified.