The use of software probes in testing FORTRAN programs

The last 10 to 15 years have seen the evolution of hardware diagnosis and testing from an art to a science (see Chang).¹ Well conceived and well documented hardware test strategies are now available, as well as reliability measures for hardware designs. Software testing, on the other hand, has not experienced the same growth. (This is not to say that software is not being tested; many complex software systems are up and running without significant problems.) However, unlike hardware diagnosis, software testing methodology is very primitive.