HITS: a symbolic testing and debugging system for multilingual microcomputer software
The use of a large-scale computer is the key to the development of increasingly numerous and large-scale microcomputer software programs. HITS (Highly Interactive Testing-and-debugging System) constructs an integrated programming environment for 68000 microcomputer systems on a large-scale computer in cooperation with language translators. This system supports efficient and effective software validation from module testing through system testing. Functions of HITS are provided in the test-procedure description language, in which test data, expected results and the testing environment are described and separated from the target program. The main features are (1) symbolic support of both a high-level language and an assembly language, (2) module testing facilities such as driver and stub definitions, (3) a testing coverage monitor for branch testing, (4) debugging commands added temporarily to a test procedure from a terminal, and (5) a macro definition for language extension. HITS has already been used at many sites. In our early experience of applying it to the software development of various communication systems, software productivity and reliability were considerably improved.