Automated Debugging Tool

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Automated Debugging Tool
By Alpha Balde BEng Computer Networking School of
Engineering - University of Greenwich Supervisor
Mrs Radi Doncheva
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Overview

• Introduction
• Aim of the project
• Types of bugs
• Types of debuggers
• Debugging techniques
• The automated debugging tool
• Motivation
• Conclusion and Future work

21/05/04
Automated Debugging Tool
Alpha Balde
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Introduction

• A bug is a flaw in a program. The term became
  associated with computers as a result of a moth
  getting stuck in an early computer at Harvard
  University.
• Debugging is the art of removing bugs from
  software.

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Background information

• Complex programs will always contain bugs.
• Debugging remains hard and labour-intensive.
• Most of existing debugging tools are manual.
• New tools are needed to automate debugging.

Alpha Balde
Automated Debugging Tool
21/05/04
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Aim of the project

• To evaluate existing techniques for program
  debugging and automated debugging tools.
• To categorise debugging tools by the types of
  bugs the tool can find and software support.
• To design and implement an automated debugging
  tool in Java programming language.

21/05/04
Automated Debugging Tool
Alpha Balde
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Types of bugs

• Syntactical Errors
• Run-Time Errors
• Logical Errors
• Threading errors

21/05/04
Automated Debugging Tool
Alpha Balde
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Type of debuggers

• IDEs contain their own debuggers
• (such as Borland JBuilder, and Eclipse)
• Stand-alone GUIs
• (such as Java Platform Debugger Architecture)
• Text-based and command-line driven
• (such as Sun JDB)
• Brute force using an editor
• (such as Notepad)

21/05/04
Automated Debugging Tool
Alpha Balde
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Debugging techniques

• Basic Java Bytecode
• Debugging using comments
• Attaching to a running process
• Remote debugging
• Debugging on demand

Alpha Balde
Automated Debugging Tool
21/05/04
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The automated debugging tool(1)
Debug button
Menubar
Toolbar
Run button

• Editor

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The automated debugging tool(2)

• How this tool could be different from existing
  debugger?
• It's simple.
• It's easy to learn.
• It was designed with education in mind.

21/05/04
Automated Debugging Tool
Alpha Balde
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Motivation

• Why study debugging in the context of software
  systems?
• As software systems become more integrated into
  our daily lives, our tolerance for failure
  decreases - in many cases failure has become
  unacceptable.
• Software is now widely used in safety-critical
  systems (nuclear power plants, air traffic
  control systems, medical instruments, embedded
  systems running in aircraft or automobiles).

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Conclusion and future work

• This project has produced some excellent research
  into the field of program debugging and its
  outcome is very satisfactory.
• The work can be taken further by finalising the
  automated debugging tool for a complete
  Integrated Development Environment .

21/05/04
Automated Debugging Tool
Alpha Balde
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Summary

• Introduction
• Importance of the project
• Aim of the project
• Types of bugs
• Types of debuggers
• Debugging techniques
• The automated debugging tool
• Motivation
• Conclusion and Future work

21/05/04
Automated Debugging Tool
Alpha Balde
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• Thank you for listening!
• Any Question?

21/05/04
Automated Debugging Tool
Alpha Balde