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+===================================================+
+===================================================+
+======= Testing Techniques Newsletter (TTN) =======+
+======= ONLINE EDITION =======+
+======= January 1994 =======+
+===================================================+
+===================================================+
TESTING TECHNIQUES NEWSLETTER (TTN) is E-mailed on a monthly basis to support
the Software Research, Inc. (SR) community and to provide information of gen-
eral use to the testing community. (c) Copyright Software Research, Inc.
1994.
TRADEMARKS: STW/Regression, CAPBAK, TCAT, TCAT-PATH, Software TestWorks, STW
and the SR logo are trademarks of Software Research, Inc. All other systems
are either trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
============================================================================
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
o The STW "Insider"
o SR Announcements
o W. E. Deming
o 7th International Software Quality Week (QW '94)
o 5th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE)
o Journal of Software Quality: Call for Participation
o Calendar of Events
o TTN Submittal Policy
o TTN Subscription Information
============================================================================
- THE STW "INSIDER" -
The STW "INSIDER" assists our customers in the use of Software TestWorks
(STW) tools, by providing information on how to use the tools more effec-
tively or avoid common errors.
The featured topic of this section is the STW/Regression tool CAPBAK/X.
CAPBAK/X is a capture/playback tool for the X Window's environment which cap-
tures complete sessions during the testing process (including keystroke and
mouse movements, images, and exact time replay) and allows the user a wide
range of playback options (such as editing keysave files and sychronizing the
playback process).
The following usage techniques are recommended for CAPBAK/X:
--> Hotkey Window Invocation and the F1 Function Key
During a recording session, commands are issued from the Hotkey window. To
invoke the Hotkey window, CAPBAK/X utilizes the keyboard's F1 function key.
Certain Sun SPARC machines running OpenWindows use the F1 function key as the
default "Help" button. This conflict can be resolved one of two ways.
1. Using the Function Keys window, configure CAPBAK/X's F1 function key
to another key.
2. Comment out the following line in either your home directory's .xin-
itrc file or the Sun's default $OPENWINHOME/lib/Xinitrc file:
xmodmap -k 'keysym F1 = Help`
--> Activating an Application During A Recording Pause
When pausing a recording session, do not change the position of a window or
activate any of its buttons. These actions can effect synchronization during
playback and cause captured bitmap images to differ during the comparison
process. In particular, the Hotkey window's Save Mouse button can be easily
misused.
When the Hotkey window's Save Mouse button is selected to capture a window, a
crosshairs cursor appears. If the crosshairs are clicked on a window's
activation button, the activation button's command will be issued and THEN
the window will be captured. For example, if the X-client calculator window
is being saved, clicking on one of its numbers will change the window's out-
put before the window is captured. When the captured calculator window is
played back, the response file will differ from the baseline file.
Therefore, the crosshairs cursors should be moved to a "free area" (an area
that contains no activation buttons) before capturing a selected window with
the Save Mouse button.
--> Running CAPBAK/X on a SPARC Station using a DOS Emulator
Some users of SPARC-based DOS emulators may have noted that CAPBAK/X appears
to fail to record activity when using the DOS screen. One of our users
discovered the way to tell the SunOS environment *not* to disregard this data
-- and thus permit CAPBAK/X to capture it.
The solution is to enter the following environment variable into either your
home directory's .cshrc file or the $OPENWINHOME/lib/Xinitrc file:
setenv "GET_INPUT_FROM_XNEWS" ON
Once this resource is turned on there should be no further problems recording
and playing back activities occuring on the DOS screen.
--> Synchronization
When a window pops up on the screen during a recording session, its borders
and content may not be in focus. If this window is captured for the purpose
of playback image synchronization, synchronization may fail.
When a window is in focus, its border color differs from a window not in
focus. If a window is not clicked on and forced into focus during recording,
synchronization failure sometimes occurs because the system parameter's may
not be capable of determining the window's focus during playback. In other
words, playback will be unable to match the recording session's captured
image.
To ensure playback can synchronize on a recording session's captured image,
click on the border of a window prior to using the window image synchroniza-
tion options. This will bring the window into focus, ensuring playback syn-
chronization.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
-= To submit a unique application of a STW product, =-
=-= e-mail "tnn@soft.com". =-=
=-= Please specify whether your name and company =-=
-= should be indicated. =-
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
============================================================================
SR PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENTS
--> Solaris 2.3 Supported
SR's Software TestWorks (STW) suite of automated regression tools, coverage
analyzers and advisory tools are now supported on the Solaris 2.3 OS on the
Sun SPARC workstation.
--> C++ Supported for TCAT-PATH
STW/Coverage's TCAT-PATH tool for path coverage analysis now supports the C++
language. TCAT-PATH determines how many possible path combinations in a
module have been exercised.
TCAT-PATH joins TCAT (for logical branch coverage) in processing code written
in the C++ language.
For further information on these features, please contact your SR sales
representative.
============================================================================
--- W. Edwards Deming ---
Mr. W. Edwards Deming, virtually the inventor of total quality management,
died December 20, 1993.
In Japan during the early 1950's, Mr. Deming introduced the idea of "statist-
ical quality control" to Japanese production teams. His management theories
were so effective for the Japanese, that they named their most-coveted annual
quality improvement award the "Deming Prize". His ideas were largely ignored
in the United States until the 1970's.
Books by Mr. Deming include: "New Economics for Industrial Government" and
"Out of the Crisis", both of which are published by the Massachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology, Center for Advanced Engineering Study, Cambridge, MA.
============================================================================
7 t h I N T E R N A T I O N A L S O F T W A R E Q U A L I T Y W E E K
Conference Theme: Maintaining Competitiveness
May 17-20, 1994
-- CALL FOR PARTICIPATION --
LOCATION: The Sheraton Palace Hotel, San Francisco, California
Software Research Institute (a not-for-profit subsidiary of SR) is sponsor-
ings the Seventh International Software Quality Week (QW '94). In today's
marketplace, organizations are faced with the difficult challenge of develop-
ing and delivering complex software systems while continually improving pred-
ictability and reducing the cycle time between releases. Those companies that
can master quality and productivity issues will dominate their markets into
the next century.
CONFERENCE THEME: The QW'94 theme, "Maintaining Competitiveness", focuses on
advances in software test technology, quality control, risk management, soft-
ware safety, and test automation.
QW'94 is expected to include the foremost industry practitioners in
QA/QC/Testing to provide the methodologies and advanced automated software
test methods that promise major advances in system quality and reliability.
This event features a full day of tutorial seminars, a complete three-day,
three-track technical conference, and a two day vendor show, featuring top
suppliers of Computer Aided Software Test (CAST) products.
Quality Week has one goal: To create an on-going publicly accessible platform
where researchers and Quality Assurance professionals, as well as users at
every level, can communicate and exchange experience and technology.
To receive information on the conference or to register your company for the
exposition, e-mail your request to qw@soft.com
============================================================================
5th INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON SOFTWARE RELIABILITY ENGINEERING (ISSRE)
November 6-9, 1994
-- Call For Papers, Experience Reports, Panel Session, Tutorials --
-- and Tools Fair Proposals --
LOCATION: Doubletree Inn Hotel in Monterey, California
CONFERENCE THEME: "Achieving Reliable Software Through Testing, Verification
and Validation" will focus on the testing process together with verification
and validation and their relationship to the achievement of reliable soft-
ware. Of particular interest is the use of software reliability criteria as
stopping rules for the testing process.
SUBMISSION INFORMATION: The conference seeks papers that will advance the
state of the art, promote transfer of technology, document best practice in
the application of the principles of software reliability in the development
of software, provide acquisition guidance, encourage and promote education in
the area of software reliability measurement and modeling and help faster
increased interaction between academic and application communities.
Submissions of papers, experience reports and panel proposals should include
five (5) copies sent to one of the Program Co-Chairs.
PAPERS: Should be 2000-5000 words in length. Papers must not have been pub-
lished or submitted elsewhere for publication. A cover page must include:
title, all authors' names and complete mailing addresses and telephone
numbers as well as a maximum 250 word abstract and keyword list. The first
page of the paper should have the paper title and the beginning text of the
document.
PANEL PROPOSALS: Should include the title, proposed chair, tentative panel-
ists (including a short vita), a 2 or 3 paragraph description of the subject
of the panel discussion together with a rationale for the panel. Panelists
must have agreed to participate prior to the submission of the panel propo-
sal.
EXPERIENCE REPORTS: Are intended to provide exposure for software reliability
professionals of practical experiences in the application of software relia-
bility measurement and modeling theory to practical applications. The contri-
butors should submit of 4-6 page written description of the experience or
case study and a one page summary of the project for a ten minute presenta-
tion at the conference. The paper should be clearly identified as an experi-
ence report. The evaluation criteria for these submissions will be based on
the relevance of the results to future work in the area.
TUTORIAL SESSION PROPOSALS: Are solicited for both full-length, all-day
tutorials and also for mini-tutorials of two to four hour length. Tutorials
proposals should be submitted to the Tutorials Chair by March 1, 1994.
TOOLS FAIR PROPOSALS: Should include a description of the software product to
be demonstrated and the relevance of the software product to the field of
software reliability engineering. The character of the presentations must
reflect the scholarly nature of the Conference. Tools Fair proposals should
be submitted to either of the Tools co-Chairs by March 1, 1994.
IMPORTANT DATES:
o Submission Deadline: March 1, 1994,
o Acceptance Notification: May 1, 1994,
o Camera-ready copy: July 1, 1994.
GENERAL CHAIR
Norman F. Schneidewind
Naval Postgraduate School
code AS/Ss Monterey, CA 93943
schneidewind@nps.navy.mil
Tel + (1) 408 656 2719
Fax + (1) 408 656 3407
PROGRAM CHAIRS
Karama Kanoun Taghi Khoshgoftaar
LAAS-CNRS 7, Florida Atlantic University
Avenue du Colonel Roche 31077 Dept. of Computer Sc. & Eng.
Toulouse Cedex, France; PO Box 3091
E-mail: kanoun@laas.fr Boca Raton, FL 33431-0091
Tel: + (33) 6133 6235 E-mail: taghi@cse.fau.edu
FAX: + (33) 6133 6411 Tel: +(1) 407 367 3994
FAX: +(1) 407 367 2800
John C. Munson
University of W. Florida
Dept. of Computer Science
Pensacola, FL 32514
E-mail: jmunson@ai.uwf.edu
Tel: + (1) 904 474 2989
FAX: + (1) 904 474 3129
TUTORIALS CHAIR
Farokh Bastani
Department of Computer Science
University of Houston
Houston, TX, 77204-3475
E-mail: coscfb@cs.uh.edu
Tel: + (1) 713 743 3354
FAX: + (1) 713 743 3335
TOOLS FAIR CHAIRS
William H. Farr Fevzi Belli
NSWCDD - B10 University of Paderborn
Dahlgren, VA 22445-5000 Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Eng.
E-mail: wfarr@s850.mwc.edu Building P5, Room P52.07, Pohlweg 47-49
Tel: +(1) 703 663 8388 D-33098 Paderborn, Germany
FAX: +(1) 703 663 4568 E-mail: belli@uni-paderborn.de
Tel: +(49) 525 160 3447
FAX: +(49) 525 160 3246
============================================================================
JOURNAL OF SOFTWARE QUALITY
-- CALL FOR PARTICIPATION --
The Journal of Software Quality is soliciting papers for a special issue
on software usability. Published by Chapman and Hall, London, this journal
addresses software engineering and offers the opportunity to reach a new
audience regarding usability testing issues.
SUBMISSION INFORMATION: Papers that address current research and papers
that discuss actual practice and lessons learned are desired.
RESEARCH PAPERS: Suggested research topics include methodology and
comparison of various evaluation techniques, data collection tools
and analysis tools. Research papers should be limited to 25 pages,
double spaced.
PRACTICE PAPERS: Include experience with usability methodologies and
recommendations for improvements, cost benefit analysis studies, and
descriptions of the various organizational issues for usability test-
ing. Practice papers should be limited to 12 pages, double spaced.
Send four hard copies of the paper to:
Dr. Jean Scholtz
Intel Corporation
JF2-19
5200 NE Elam Young Parkway
Hillsboro, OR 97124-6497
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: March 31, 1994. Please indicate if you are willing
to act as a referee for research or practice papers.
Further information can be obtained by contacting:
Jean Scholtz
Phone: 503-696-8533
FAX: 503-696-6181
email: Jean_Scholtz@ccm.jf.intel.com
============================================================================
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
o February 28, 1994: Software World USA, San Francisco, CA.
Contact: Mark Longo (Digital Consulting, Inc.); TEL: 508-470-3870
o March 23-25, 1994: UniForum at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA.
Contacts: Chip Zaborowski (National Account Manager),
Letitia Clementi (Exhibit Services) and
Cathy Gibson (Show Manager)
IDG World Expo
111 Speen Street, P.O. Box 9107, Framingham, MA 01701-9107
TEL: 508-879-6700; FAX: 508-872-8237
o April 10-15, 1994: 6th Annual Software Technology Conference
Salt Lake City, Utah
Contact: Dallas Holmes or Peg Richins
Utah State University, Conference and Institute Division
Logan, UT 84322, TEL: 801-750-1692
o May 8-12, 1994: Software Testing Analysis & Review (STAR '94)
Alexandria, Virginia
Contact: Carol Staurt
TEL: 800-423-8378; FAX: 904-268-0733
o May 17-20, 1994: 7th Annual International Software Quality Week
San Francisco, California
Contact: Rita Bral
TEL: 415-550-3020; FAX: 415-550-3030
e-mail: qw@soft.com
============================================================================
TTN SUBMITTAL POLICY
-- CALENDAR OF EVENTS AND CALL FOR PAPERS --
TTN Online Edition is forwarded on the 15th of each month to subscribers
via InterNet. To have your event listed in an upcoming issue please e-
mail a description of your event or Call for Papers or Participation to
"ttn@soft.com".
The TTN submittal policy is as follows:
o Submission deadlines indicated in "Calls For Papers" should
provide at least a 2-month lead time from the TTN issue date.
For example, submission deadlines for "Calls For Papers" in
the January issue of TTN would be for March and beyond.
o Length of submitted items should not exceed 68 lines (one page).
o Publication of submitted items is determined by Software Research,
Inc., and may be edited as necessary.
============================================================================
TTN SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
To request a FREE subscription or submit articles, please e-mail
"ttn@soft.com". For subscriptions, please use the keywords "Request-TTN"
or "subscribe" in the Subject line of your e-mail header. To have your
name added to the subscription list for the quarterly hard-copy version of
TTN -- which contains additional information beyond the monthly electronic
version -- include your name, company, and postal address.
To cancel a subscription, include the phrase "unsubscribe" or "UNrequest-
TTN" in the Subject line.
Note: For back copies (August 1993 onward) of TTN's Online Edition,
please send e-mail requests to "ttn@soft.com".
TESTING TECHNIQUES NEWSLETTER
Software Research, Inc.
901 Minnesota Street
San Francisco, CA 94107 USA
Phone: (415) 550-3020
Toll Free: (800) 942-SOFT
FAX: (415) 550-3030
E-MAIL: ttn@soft.com
## End ##