Test-data generation for Xtext

Status
To appear in proceedings of SLE 2014

Authors
Johannes Härtel and Lukas Härtel and Ralf Lämmel

Abstract
We describe a method and a corresponding tool for grammar-based test-data generation (GBTG). The basic generation principle is to enumerate test data based on grammatical choices. However, generation is broken down into two phases to deal with context-sensitive properties in an efficient and convenient manner. The first phase enumerates test data (i.e., parse trees) with placeholders. The second phase instantiates the placeholders through post-processors. A DSL for grammar transformation is used to customize a given grammar, meant for parsing, to be more suitable for test-data generation. Post-processors are derived from a corresponding object-oriented framework. The actual tool, Xtextgen, extends the Xtext technology for language development.

Keywords
Grammars. Test-data generation. Test-data enumeration. Grammar transformation. Grammar customization. Context sensitivity. Xtext. Xtend. Xtextgen.

Bibtex entry 
@inproceedings{HartelHL14,
  author    = {Johannes H{\"a}rtel and Lukas H{\"a}rtel and Ralf L{\"a}mmel},
  title     = "{Test-data generation for Xtext (Tool paper)}",
  booktitle = "{Proceedings of SLE 2014}",
  publisher = "Springer",
  series    = "LNCS",
  volume    = "8706",
  note      = "10 pages. To appear.",
}

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