Functional Programming, Testing and Machine Aids

The main ideas of functional (structured or top-down) programming are briefly reviewed and examined for implications for testing. It is pointed out that functional programming provides an opportunity for explicitly tracking functional specifications of an evolving design. The relevance of an integrated programming environment to this methodology is observed and two particular features it should have are examined: effective top-level execution control by the programmer himself and a continuous context that preserves the effects of individual tests. Two mechanisms, a type system and an extendible interpreter, are suggested as a basis for an implementation