The TAP conference is devoted to the convergence of proofs and tests, to the application of techniques from both sides and their combination for the advancement of software quality. Test and Proof seem to be contradictory techniques: if you have proved your program to be correct, it is fruitless to comb it for bugs; and if you are testing it, that is surely a sign that you have given up on any hope to prove its correctness. Accordingly, proofs and tests have, since the onset of software engineering research, been pursued by distinct communities.
However, the development of both approaches lead to the discovery of common issues and to the realization that each may need the other. The emergence of model checking has been one of the first signs that contradiction may yield to complementarity. Further evidence give test data generation techniques from models or programs which boil down to constraint resolution techniques for relatively large formula; the advent of powerful SMT solvers have therefore powered new testing techniques. Finally, since formal, proof-based verification is costly, testing invariants and background theories can be helpful to detect errors early and to improve cost effectivity. Summing up, in the past few years an increasing number of research efforts have encountered the need for combining proofs and tests, dropping earlier dogmatic views of incompatibility and taking instead the best of what each of these software engineering domains has to offer.
The TAP conference aims to bring together researchers and practitioners working in the converging fields of testing and proving, and will offer a generous allocation of papers, panels and informal discussions.
| Submissions: | December 14, 2011 |
| Notification: | March 2, 2012 |
| Event: | May 31, 2012-June 1, 2012 |