Re: Tool to create assertions from a running Java application

I believe the Agitar stuff was based on the Daikon research. I think some
stuff from that could be useful at least to review how extensively
different parts of the system get tested. Such as the ranges at which
different program points are exercised. But Agitar seemed to aim for more
than that.

Never had a chance to try it in practice but I would guess you are right
that there could be similar issues as with static analysis tools. Too much
data to analyse, too many false positives, etc.

I don't think test generation overall is a bad idea but maybe test
generation based only on reverse engineering the implementation has some
issues. Certainly it can provide some useful input though.


On 1 February 2014 17:00, Malte Finsterwalder <[email protected]>wrote:

>
>
> Maybe you can check out agitar. They provide a system that does exactly
> this: Generate tests for existing code.
> They made a big buzz a few years ago. I look into it very briefly and the
> generated tests where not that bad.
> The biggest problem was: They were far too numerous and too detailed.
> Writing good tests puts emphasis on the important parts that really needs
> to be tested and ignores exidential details.
> I never quite understood how a tool like that should be used.
>
> I know that Kent Beck was involved into the undertaking, but I think he is
> no longer. Probably because it didn't quite work out in practice.
>
> Greetings,
>    Malte
>
>  
>