Automating the Debugging of Large Numerical Codes
Abstract
The development of large numerical codes is usually
carried out in an incremental fashion and over a long
period of time. In this process a segment of code might for
reasons of speed or accuracy be replaced with a new code
segment. If the resulting program exits with a fault or
generates a completely different result than the old one, it
is crucial to find the place where the discrepancy first
occurs. Finding this place might be a very tedious and time
consuming operation.
We present a prototype tool specially designed to aid the
programmer in debugging such situations. The tool lets the
programmer run both the old and the new code
simultaneously while monitoring a set of variables in the
two codes. If any discrepancy is discovered between the
two programs this is automatically reported back to the
user who can take appropriate action.
We believe this to be a simple yet powerful way of
automating the debugging process that can easily be
incorporated into existing debugging programs.
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