New software toolkit offer ultra-fast debugging

Did you know that internet giants like Amazon and Facebook update the software behind their websites every few seconds? Researchers from the universities of Antwerp (UA) and Brussels (VUB) have now developed a toolkit that prevents bugs slipping in during these continuous update cycles.

By updating several times a minute, these companies can offer the newest functionalities to users as quickly as possible. But there’s a drawback: Every piece of software needs to be “debugged” – tested thoroughly to detect possible errors. This practice often requires a lot of computing power and is thus very time-consuming.

A collaboration between UA and VUB research groups has now come up with a solution to the problem: Instead of debugging the entire software package over and over, the researchers focus on the differences between two versions. “By definition, these differences are very small,” explained Serge Demeyer, a computer scientist at UA. “So we can run very complex software analyses in a relatively short time. The result is better software, a higher degree of functionality and fewer errors.”

The new toolkit will be presented today to professionals from the world of informatics during a special event at UA.

photo: Ingimage