Reliability in code generating software

by Ankar, Marcus

More and more aspects of our everyday life become dependant on computer software. Therefore it is increasingly important to ensure that the software has a proper level of reliability. Code generators are computer software that produces other software on demand of the user. Thus, reliability of code generators has two concerns. The first concern is reliability of the generator itself, and the other concern is reliability of the generated software. A code generator that allows to build wide range of software solutions potentially gives large flexibility to the user. This flexibility may raise concerns of reliability of the generated software because the user might use features of the generator inappropriately. This paper studies several software reliability frameworks and analyses their applicability in development of a small-scale code generator. The paper also investigates the trade-off between the flexibility of the code generator and its reliability. Publisher: Högskolan Trollhättan ? Uddevalla, Institutionen för Informatik och Mattematik Box 957, 461 29 Trollhättan Tel: 0520-47 50 00 Fax: 0520-47 50 99 Stefan Mankefors Examinar: Supervisor: Stanislav Belenki, HTU Major: Software Enigineering Lanuage: English Level: Fördjupningsnivå 2 Points: 10 iii Report nr: 2003:PM10 Date: 2003-09-09 Key words: reliability, code generator, c#, csharp, asp.net, Reliability in code generating software Förord Denna rapport bygger på ett projekt som gjorts tillsammans med två andra studenter, Niklas Röstberg och Andreas Grahn. Utifrån detta projekt har sedan var och en av deltagarna gjort egna undersökningar utifrån deras egna infallsvinklar. Författaren av detta arbete vill tacka de övriga deltagarna för ett lärorikt och givande arbete. iv Reliability in code generating software Innehållsförteckning Sammanfattning................................................................................................................ ii Abstract............................................................................................................................ iii Förord ...............................................................................................................................iv Introduction .......................................................................................................................6 Reliability in code-generating software.............................................................................6 Reliability ..........................................................................................................................6 Reliability in Software Engineering..............................................................................7 Software Reliability Testing........................................................................................10 Case Study: The Web Shop Generator...........................................................................12 The application ...........................................................................................................12 Reliability in the web shop generator..............................................................................12 Use of standards .........................................................................................................12 Methods.......................................................................................................................12 Requirements ..............................................................................................................13 Templates....................................................................................................................14 Client/server – related reliability ...............................................................................15 Testing.........................................................................................................................15 Evaluation...................................................................................................................15 Discussion........................................................................................................................16 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................16