Extensions to the WYSIWYT methodology

Graduation date: 2002Researchers in the Forms/3 group have previously developed the WYSIWYT\ud methodology, exploring a way of systematically testing spreadsheet languages. The previous\ud work presented the WYSIWYT methodology for individual spreadsheet cells, and later\ud partially extended it to large grids in which some cells share the same formula. The Forms/3\ud spreadsheet language supports not only operations of individual cells but also some advanced\ud programming features such as homogeneous grids, recursive programs, and user-defined\ud abstract data types. Therefore, it is important for the testing methodology to support even\ud these more powerful features of the language, not just the "easy parts". In this document, we\ud present extensions to the WYSIWYT methodology for these advanced features. We optimized\ud the visual aspects of testing spreadsheet grids and collected experimental information about\ud scalability. We also developed two possible ways the WYSIWYT methodology could be\ud extended to accommodate recursion in terms of their testing theoretic aspects, implementation\ud strategies, algorithms and time complexities. Since the ultimate goal is to help the people\ud using these languages, we also conducted an empirical study and used its results to inform our\ud choice as to which of these two approaches to adopt. Finally, we developed an approach of\ud testing user-defined abstract data types; here we present design, implementation issues,\ud algorithms and time complexities