LDRA Testbed provides the core

static Static may refer to: Places *Static Nunatak, a nunatak in Antarctica United States * Static, Kentucky and Tennessee *Static Peak, a mountain in Wyoming **Static Peak Divide, a mountain pass near the peak Science and technology Physics *Static el ...

and

dynamic Dynamics (from Greek δυναμικός ''dynamikos'' "powerful", from δύναμις ''dynamis'' "power") or dynamic may refer to: Physics and engineering * Dynamics (mechanics) ** Aerodynamics, the study of the motion of air ** Analytical dynam ...

analysis engines for both host and embedded software. LDRA Testbed is made by

Liverpool Data Research Associates Liverpool Data Research Associates (LDRA) is a provider of software analysis, and test and requirements traceability tools for the Public and Private sectors and a pioneer in static and dynamic software analysis. History LDRA was founded in 1975 ...

(LDRA). LDRA Testbed provides the means to enforce compliance with coding standards such as

MISRA Misra or Mishra may refer to: * Motor Industry Software Reliability Association * MISRA C, a software development standard for the C programming language * Misra (poetry), a term meaning a line of a couplet, or verse, in Turkic, Arabic, Persian an ...

, JSF++ AV, CERT C, CWE and provides visibility of software flaws that might typically pass through the standard build and test process to become latent problems. In addition, test effectiveness feedback is provided through structural coverage analysis reporting facilities, which support the requirements of the

DO-178B DO-178B, Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification is a guideline dealing with the safety of safety-critical software used in certain airborne systems. It was jointly developed by the safety-critical working group RT ...

standard up to and including Level-A.

Static analysis

Static analysis Static analysis, static projection, or static scoring is a simplified analysis wherein the effect of an immediate change to a system is calculated without regard to the longer-term response of the system to that change. If the short-term effect i ...

initiates LDRA Testbed activity by undertaking lexical and syntactic analysis of the source code for a single file or a complete system.

Programming standards checking

The enforcement of programming standards (or coding standards) is commonly regarded as good practice. The adherence to such standards can be automatically checked by products like LDRA Testbed. Main Static Analysis searches the source code for any programming standards violations, by checking the source files against the superset supplied with LDRA Testbed. This system can be configured for: * User definable filters – switch standards on or off * Change standards from mandatory to optional or vice versa. * Use annotations to switch off standards for specific instances of violations. LDRA Testbed reports violations of the chosen set of standards in both textual reports and as annotations to graphical displays

Dynamic coverage analysis

Dynamic coverage analysis explores the semantics of the program-under-test via test data selection. It uses control and data flow models and compares them with the actual control and data flow as the program executes. Dynamic Analysis, therefore, forces the selection of test data which explores the structure of the source code. The LDRA tool suite includes a dynamic coverage amodule. It is used to beneficial effect on software robustness and reliability during both development and maintenance cycles.

Quality report

Quality metrics such as

Halstead complexity measures Halstead complexity measures are software metrics introduced by Maurice Howard Halstead in 1977 as part of his treatise on establishing an empirical science of software development. Halstead made the observation that metrics of the software should ...

cyclomatic complexity Cyclomatic complexity is a software metric used to indicate the complexity of a program. It is a quantitative measure of the number of linearly independent paths through a program's source code. It was developed by Thomas J. McCabe, Sr. in 1976 ...

, Knots metric are designed to verify that code is clear, maintainable and testable. The quality report in the LDRA tool suite presents both a summary and detailed breakdown of quality metrics which are deduced during static analysis.

Alternatives

A selection of LDRA's partners in the software testing market include:

MathWorks MathWorks is an American privately held corporation that specializes in mathematical computing software. Its major products include MATLAB and Simulink, which support data analysis and simulation. History The company's key product, MATLAB, was ...

who have integrated their

Simulink Simulink is a MATLAB-based graphical programming environment for modeling, simulating and analyzing multidomain dynamical systems. Its primary interface is a graphical block diagramming tool and a customizable set of block libraries. It offers t ...

tools, as well as IBM Rational Rose, Rational Rhapsody, IAR Embedded Workbench, Wind River and

VxWorks VxWorks is a real-time operating system (or RTOS) developed as proprietary software by Wind River Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Aptiv. First released in 1987, VxWorks is designed for use in embedded systems requiring real-time, determin ...

. LDRA's rivals include AdaTEST, Cantata++,

Coverity Coverity is a proprietary static code analysis tool from Synopsys. This product enables engineers and security teams to find and fix software defects. Coverity started as an independent software company in 2002 at the Computer Systems Laboratory ...

Klocwork Klocwork is a static code analysis tool owned by Minneapolis, Minnesota-based software developer Perforce. Klocwork software analyzes source code in real time, simplifies peer code reviews, and extends the life of complex software. Overview Kloc ...

Parasoft Parasoft (officially Parasoft Corporation) is an independent software vendor specializing in automated software testing and application security with headquarters in Monrovia, California. It was founded in 1987 by four graduates of the Californ ...

and VectorCAST.

References

{{reflist History of computing in the United Kingdom Science and technology in Merseyside Software testing Static program analysis tools