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International Workshop on Automated and Algorithmic Debugging

AADEBUG 1993: Automated and Algorithmic Debugging pp 1–15Cite as

A pragmatic survey of automated debugging

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 749))

Abstract

This article proposes a structuring view of the area of automated debugging. Nineteen automated debugging systems are analyzed. Thirteen existing automated debugging techniques are briefly evaluated from a pragmatic point of view. The three underlying strategies are identified, namely verification with respect to specification, checking with respect to language knowledge and filtering with respect to symptom.

The verification strategy compares the actual program with some formal specification of the intended program. The checking strategy looks for suspect places which do not comply with some explicit knowledge of the programming language. The filtering strategy assumes correct parts of the code which cannot be responsible for the error symptom.

Assertion evaluation and algorithmic debugging are the most promising verification techniques. Some intrinsic limitations of the checking strategy makes it only a complementary, though helpful, debugging support. The slicing technique should be included in any debugger.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. European Computer-Industry Research Centre, Arabellastrasse 17, D - 81925, Munich, Germany

    Mireille Ducassé

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  1. Mireille Ducassé
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Peter A. Fritzson

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© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Ducassé, M. (1993). A pragmatic survey of automated debugging. In: Fritzson, P.A. (eds) Automated and Algorithmic Debugging. AADEBUG 1993. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 749. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0019397

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0019397

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-57417-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-48141-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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