ValiErlang: A Structural Testing Tool for Erlang Programs

• Alexandre P. Oliveira USP
• Paulo S. L. Souza USP
• Simone R. S. Souza USP

Abstract

Validation, verification and testing are essential and contribute to improve the quality of programs, independent of the programming paradigm. In the context of functional language, aspects such as immutable data, higher-order functions, lazy evaluation and pattern matching impose restrictions to the structural testing software activity, which require special attention from testers. This paper presents a tool, called ValiErlang, which implements specific testing criteria for sequential and parallel Erlang programs, the latter using the message-passing paradigm. The ValiErlang is split into five modules and all of them have been detailed. Based on pre-defined criteria, the tool evaluates the obtained coverage by criteria, thus, the tester can evaluate the quality of the program being tested.

Keywords: Erlang, coverage, testing tool