Debugging debugging: acm sigsoft impact paper award keynote

ABSTRACT

Imagine some program and a number of changes. If none of these changes is applied ("yesterday"), the program works. If all changes are applied ("today"), the program does not work. Which change is responsible for the failure? This is how the abstract of the paper "Yesterday, my program worked. Today, it does not. Why?" started; a paper which, originally published at ESEC/FSE 1999 [12], introduced the concept of delta debugging, one of the most popular automated debugging techniques. This year, this paper receives the ACM SIGSOFT Impact Paper Award, recognizing its influence in the past ten years. In my keynote, I review the state of debugging then and now, share how it can be hard to be simple, what programmers really need, and what research should do (and should not do) to explore these needs and cater to them.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.5 Testing and Debugging
          Subjects: Debugging aids

General Terms:
Algorithms, Experimentation, Reliability

Keywords:
automated debugging, delta debugging