A debugging tool for software evolution

This paper describes a tool for debugging programs which have been developed using evolutionary software techniques. The tool enhances the traditional debugging approach by automating the comparison of data structures between two running programs. Using this technique, it is possible to use early versions of a program which are known to operate correctly to generate values for comparison with the new program under development. The tool allows the reference code and the program being developed to execute on different computer systems by using open distributed systems techniques. A simple visualisation system allows the user to view the differences in data structures. By using the data flow of the code, it is possible to locate faulty sections of code rapidly. A small case study of finding an error in a scientific code is given