Title
Making software verification tools really work
Abstract
We discuss problems and barriers which stand in the way of producing verification tools that are robust, scalable and integrated in the software development cycle. Our analysis is that these barriers span a spectrum from theoretical, through practical and even logistical issues. Theoretical issues are the inherent complexity of program verification and the absence of a common, accepted semantic model in tools. Practical hurdles include the challenges arising from real-world systems features, such as floating-point arithmetic and weak memory. Logistical obstacles we identify are the lack of standard benchmarks to drive tool quality and efficiency, and the difficulty for academic research institutions of allocating resources to tool development. We propose simple measures which we, as a community, could adopt to make the design of serious verification tools easier and more credible. Our long-term vision is for the community to produce tools that are indispensable for a developer but so seamlessly integrated into a development environment, as to be invisible.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1007/978-3-642-24372-1_3
ATVA
Keywords
Field
DocType
tool development,serious verification tool,software verification tool,verification tool,practical hurdle,software development cycle,program verification,development environment,logistical obstacle,theoretical issue,tool quality
Software engineering,Computer science,Development environment,Theoretical computer science,Software development process,Management science,Software verification,Scalability,Semantic data model
Conference
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
6996
0302-9743
10
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.67
35
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Jade Alglave160826.53
Alastair F. Donaldson266152.35
Daniel Kroening33084187.60
Michael Tautschnig442525.84