Statistical debugging with elastic predicates
Published in 2011 26th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2011), 2011
Traditional debugging and fault localization methods have addressed localization of sources of software failures. While these methods are effective in general, they are not tailored to an important class of software, including simulations and computational models, which employ floating-point computations and continuous stochastic distributions to represent, or support evaluation of, an underlying model. To address this shortcoming, we introduce elastic predicates, a novel approach to predicate-based statistical debugging. Elastic predicates introduce profiling of values assigned to variables within a failing program. These elastic predicates are better predictors of software failure than the static and uniform predicates used in existing techniques such as Cooperative Bug Isolation (CBI).
Recommended citation: Gore, Ross, Reynolds, Paul F, Kamensky, David. (2011). "Statistical debugging with elastic predicates." 2011 26th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2011). 492-495.
Download Paper