Discovering faults in idiom-based exception handling

Magiel Bruntink, Arie van Deursen, Tom Tourwé

Abstract

In this paper, we analyse the exception handling mechanism of a state-of-the-art industrial embedded software system. Like many systems implemented in classic programming languages, our subject system uses the popular return-code idiom for dealing with exceptions. Our goal is to evaluate the fault-proneness of this idiom, and we therefore present a characterisation of the idiom, a fault model accompanied by an analysis tool, and empirical data. Our findings show that the idiom is indeed fault prone, but that a simple solution can lead to significant improvements.

BibTeX

@inproceedings{Bruntink-al:ICSE06,
  author    = {Magiel Bruntink and
               Arie van Deursen and
               Tom Tourw{\'{e}}},
  title     = {Discovering faults in idiom-based exception handling},
  booktitle = {ICSE},
  pages     = {242--251},
  publisher = {{ACM}},
  year      = {2006},
}

Discovering faults in idiom-based exception handling

Abstract

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