Lambda the Ultimate

Testing Graphical Applications
started 1/4/2001; 9:56:42 AM - last post 1/4/2001; 10:53:07 AM

Chris Rathman - Testing Graphical Applications

1/4/2001; 9:56:42 AM (reads: 542, responses: 2)

Testing Graphical Applications

This article describes a methodology for testing interactive graphical applications in embedded systems.

This reminds me of couple of years back when I got dragged into a crisis project where some 25 branches for a bank were using a VB app tied to a centralized OracleDB. The app worked fine except that during the busy times of day the network got congested and the app would hang on a transaction - causing all branches to hang waiting for the transaction to complete.

The problem turned out to be that the user would get ahead of the app at certain times and conditions. When certain threads slowed down, the user could run ahead of the app by starting another process which relied on the first thread being completed.

At the time, the tools for running regression tests for user input was almost impossible. We had a tool which could record keystrokes in a macro but it had all sorts of problems doing mouse input.
Posted to "" by Chris Rathman on 1/4/01; 9:57:23 AM

Chris Rathman - Re: Testing Graphical Applications

1/4/2001; 10:19:26 AM (reads: 560, responses: 0)

Just an aside, programming languages, libraries, debugging, algorithms, etc... all kind of run together for me.

Not sure if all these various things are topical for Lambda to Ultimate, so let me know if I stray too far away from the central discussion of programming languages.

Ehud Lamm - Re: Testing Graphical Applications

1/4/2001; 10:53:07 AM (reads: 553, responses: 0)

Drawing the line can be quite difficult at times. For example, I am now working on the effect of language features on software components (what I prefer to call software abstractions).

I guess it is a matter of perspective and balance. If something can shed light on programming languages, great. It is not that we are flooded here as it is.