Test and Evaluation of Program Slicing Tools

Abstract : Software slicing is the analysis of a program based on a slicing criterion to produce executable code that contains only those lines that are related to the slicing criterion. This reduces the state space of the program, thus aiding in testing and debugging. This technical report analyzes the Indus-Kaveri plug-in to assess its capacity for providing correct software slices that can be used to reduce regression tests. The tests reveal that the plug-in produces slices as advertised by the documentation, but nevertheless, it has many limitations that make it impractical for use in a commercial environment. These limitations include the plug-in's incompatibility with programs that require a Java Runtime later than version 1.4, the lack of highlighting of slices within external classes utilized, and the fact that slicing is accomplished through the return value of a method.