From: owner-stds-1450-4@majordomo.ieee.org on behalf of Ernst_Wahl
[wahl@dcf105.agere.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2003 5:28 AM
To: stds-1450-4@majordomo.ieee.org
Subject: stds-1450.4: test types


All,

At our Dec 3 teleconference, Dave had asked me to respond to Jim
O'Reilly's question regarding test types in writing:

> At some point, we'll need to talk about a test type - and that's
> different from a test instance. (Ernie, what do you mean by this? -
> please elaborate! - Jim)

The short of it is this: the type is the cookie cutter and the instance,
the cookie.


In C++, the following statement initializes integer i with the value 5:

    int i(5);  // Same as c language "int i = 5"

"int" is the type.  It occupies no memory in the executable image.  The
type is a prescription for how much memory would be used and how it
would be organized, aligned, and interpreted were we to create an
instance.

"i" is a tag for the instance.  The instance occupies the prescribed
amount of memory in the executable image.  5 is the initialization value
to be stored in that memory.


We may have to adopt language more suitable to our purposes but the
basic concept applies:

    TestFunctional t(timing, levels, patterns);

where "TestFunctional" is the type, "t" is the instance, and "timing",
"levels", and "patterns" are initialization values (whose values would
have had to have been previously defined, assuming a define-before-use
model, not a foregone conclusion).




When discussing the type level, i would like to consider the notion of
standard and user-defined defaults, e.g., TestFunctional also requires
start and stop addresses, but the fact that they are not in the explicit
initialization list is interpreted as "run the vector patterns from the
first to the last".

The testflow language needs to be powerful enough to perform complex
programming tasks but with sensible defaults i think, we'll be also be
able to make simple tasks appear easy to read and comprehend.

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Ernie Wahl	     Agere Systems		Tel:   610.712.6720    
Computer-Aided Test  22F-218B, 555 Union Blvd	Fax:   610.712.4235    
		     Allentown, PA, 18109	Email: ejwahl@agere.com
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