White-Box Testing Tool for Java, Jtest!
ParaSoft Corporation, a provider of development tools for C, C++, and Java, announced the award of several new technology patents. The technologies are used to power ParaSoft's new line of automatic white-box testing tools. The first tool released with this new technology is jtest!, an automatic module testing tool for Java developers.
The patented technologies are being marketed as "Test Generation Technology." With Test Generation Technology, Parasoft has created a method for delivering tools that can reduce the man-hours spent testing software programs while substantially increasing the amount of code tested. As a result, overall software quality is improved, fewer bugs are shipped to customers, and developers have more time to spend working on new projects instead of testing and repairing old code.
Historically, test suite generation, execution, and analysis were tasks left for the developer to perform manually. But as software programs have increased in size and complexity, the difficulty of generating a test suite that executes most of the source code has increased by orders of magnitude. In a typical 10,000 line program, the developer is responsible for testing 100 million possible execution paths. This is a virtually impossible task for a developer to accomplish manually.
Recent studies reiterate this point, revealing that while a typical company spends 50% of development time on software testing, only 30% of the source code developed is actually tested. The remaining 70% is too difficult to reach through manual testing and therefore is never tested. The test generation technology invented by ParaSoft—and used in ParaSoft tools like jtest!—will help companies produce more reliable and successful software by automatically testing parts of code that have been virtually impossible to cover previously.
With jtest! 2.0, Java developers can automatically test programs at the class, or module, level. This gives Java developers the ability to automatically find the hidden bugs in their code that cause uncaught runtime exceptions to occur. Prior to jtest! 2.0, no tools were available to perform this kind of testing automatically. As a result, bugs often remained hidden to developers because they were unable to expose them during testing. This problem is resolved with jtest! by digging deep into a class and making sure each method in it has been properly constructed.
Because it tests exhaustively at the module level, jtest! 2.0 can mean more effective code is produced by all manner of Java developers, including: API, library, and JavaBean Developers; and Servlet or server-side Java Developers;
jtest! is available for the Windows 95/NT and Solaris platforms. Free evaluations are available by calling the company at 888-305-0041.