Improving existing Java test cases and give the improvements back to developers as patches or pull requests. Indeed, the idea is attractive. But is it yet an efficient and proven code optimisation process?
A scientific paper from Benjamin Danglot (Inria), co-signed with three more STAMP project contributors, tickles us to think so.
The PhD candidate provides a thorough study on ten notable and mature open source projects where all test methods from 40 unit test classes have been amplified by DSpot. This proves the STAMP tool ability to strengthen real unit test classes in Java.
More test automation will be offered in the future, requiring more understanding and comparison of test purposes. Moreover, DSpot can be placed in a continuous integration service (CI) where test classes would be amplified on-the-fly. This would greatly improve the industrial applicability of this software engineering research, conclude the authors.
- Title: Automatic Test Improvement with DSpot: a Study with Ten Mature Open-Source Projects
- Authors: Benjamin Danglot, Oscar Luis Vera-Pérez, Benoit Baudry, Martin Monperrus.
- Academic publication: Empirical Software Engineering, Springer Verlag, In press, pp.1-35. <hal-01923575>