LDRA Releases TBrun® as Stand-Alone Unit Test Tool

Boston, MA, October 30, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Automated unit test covers all code—development, test, legacy, and large systems.

LDRA®, the leading provider of automated software verification, source code analysis, and test tools, now offers rigorous automated unit testing of source code in a stand-alone TBrun unit test tool release. TBrun automates the test process, freeing developers from hours of intense manual checking to verify and validate each individual module or unit of software. With the stand-alone version of TBrun, LDRA delivers a more cost-effective solution by making use of all the powerful static analysis capabilities of LDRA Testbed within TBrun’s fully automated unit test solution.

TBrun offers a high degree of automation making use of the comprehensive control and data flow analysis with the LDRA tool suite. TBrun extracts details about the unit interface including parameters, template arguments, input and output globals, input and output members and return values. These variables are then presented to the user as a framework for generating a test case for the unit. Test sequences can be performed on single functions, methods or classes. Module tests may be performed across a number of files or classes, and integration testing may be performed across whole systems. Thanks to automated test driver and harness generation, no manual scripting is required. TBrun can perform tests on executables and other targets such as libraries and dlls.

Working in host, target and simulator environments, TBrun facilitates execution of tests. TBrun stores and maintains test data and results for fully automated regression analysis, as well as providing tool-driven test vector generation. All source code changes are automatically detected and documented, as well as documenting pass/fail and regression analysis reports. For DO-178B object code verification is offered. Object code verification offers a direct way to relate code coverage at the source code level with that achieved at the object code level.

”LDRA remains committed to providing developers with cost-effective solutions,” noted Ian Hennell, LDRA Operations Director: “Studies indicate up to ninety percent of developers under use unit testing, even though early identification of errors saves a tremendous amount of overall development cost. By combining the static analysis capabilities within TBrun and providing a way to easily test new code, legacy code and large applications, we are removing the cost barriers that keep companies from producing zero-defect software.”

TBrun enables genuine and full automatic creation of the driver and test harness program. The generated driver handles all language features and offers:

Stub creation for functions, methods, constructors, system calls, etc.
Exposure of structures, arrays and unions
Detection of class hierarchy
Resolution of templated types
Automated exception handling
Detection of pointers and capture of values for testing

In addition, TBrun automatically handles a number of specific language features for C++ such as access to private and protected data, testing of abstract classes and pure virtual methods, ability to test base class methods with a derived class object, template parameters and member templates, vtable verification, test case inheritance from testing the base class, template specialisation and partial specialisation.

Ada language specific features include access to private and package variables, in, out and in out parameters, records, variant parts and generics.

For code generated by UML tools such as Telelogic Rhapsody® and IBM® Rational® Rose®, TBrun is able to utilize the native build system for building tests. In addition TBrun offers support for the generation of events.

For eXtreme testing which ensures that most source code behaviour can be quickly and easily exercised simultaneously recording high levels of code coverage, LDRA has developed the TBeXtreme plug-in. TBeXtreme provides users with the ability to rapidly and automatically create test cases from within TBrun and automates the unit/module/integration testing processes, including test harness and test vector production. This extended test environment automatically exercises test boundaries, switch statements and the full range of hard to test C/C++ and Ada 83/95 data constructs such as templates and virtual methods, as well as mechanisms including multithreading and dynamic dispatch.

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