Automated Debugging (1): about the course

1. Author and Lecture: Andreas Zeller


Home Page of Andreas
















2. Course Topics

* Tracking and Reproducing Problems
* The Scientific Method
* Understanding Programs
* Isolating Failure Causes (automatically)
* Locating and Fixing Defects

The question to answer: “Why does my Program Fail?”

3. Course Material

Book Preview on Google: “Why programs fail”

Lecture slides, dates, links on Web page

4. Course Format

* 20 lectures (= twice per week), Tue + Thu
* 3 projects (“write your own debugger”)
* Oral exams at the end of quarter

Three Projects:
* Simplifying Input: 2 weeks, answer "What’s relevant in here?"
* Comparing Coverage: 3 weeks, answer How do these runs differ?
* Locating Causes: 4 weeks, answer "What causes the failure?"

written in Python for Python

5. Grading

Three projects (15 + 20 + 30%) + Oral Exam (35%)



More classical grading system?







6. Course Overview:




Link to the original ppt file

7. Initial Plan

To revise it to make it more practical

How failure come to be

Tracking Problems

Making Programs fail

Reproducing Problems

Simplifying Problems