Appeal 2007-1416
Application 09/881,791
Appellants invented an improved method for testing software modules
under development. In the words of the Appellants:
Broadly speaking, the present invention fills these needs by providing
a system for tracking a specification that automatically obtains
assertions within the specification. The embodiments of the present
invention further provide testing of obtained assertions to determine if
the assertions are valid assertions. In one embodiment, a method for
automated acquisition of assertions in a specification of a computer
program is disclosed. An input specification is received, wherein the
input specification comprises a plurality of sentences. Then, a
sentence is obtained from the plurality of sentences, and a
determination is made as to whether the obtained sentence is a testable
assertion. Next, the obtained sentence is marked as testable when the
obtained sentence is a testable assertion. Some aspects of the present
invention can identify a context within the specification, and obtain
the sentence from the plurality of sentences by parsing the context.
Moreover, the marked obtained sentence can be added to an assertion
result set. Generally, the context is a set of circumstances related to
the obtained sentence. Further, each assertion can comprise one, two,
or more sentences of the specification.
(Specification, page 6.)
Claim 1 is exemplary:
1. A method for automated acquisition of assertions in a specification
of a computer program, comprising:
receiving the specification as an input, wherein the specification
includes a plurality of sentences describing the computer program;
obtaining a sentence from the plurality of sentences;
determining whether the obtained sentence is a testable assertion,
wherein the testable assertion describes behavior of an application
programming interface that can be tested;
marking the obtained sentence as testable when the obtained sentence
is a testable assertion; and
2
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