[pchelpers] NASA SOFTWARE DETECTS 'BUGS' IN JAVA COMPUTER CODE

John Bluck                   April 26, 2005
NASA Ames Research Center,  Moffett Field, Calif.
Phone: 650/604-5026 or 604-9000
E-mail:  jbluck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Valerie Williamson
Open Source Technology  Group, VA Software Corporation, Fremont, Calif.
Phone:  510/687-7116

RELEASE: 05-28AR
NASA DEVELOPS NEW SOFTWARE TO DETECT  'BUGS' IN JAVA COMPUTER CODE

NASA scientists today announced they are  releasing free software that 
will find 'bugs,' or defects, in Java computer  code.

The new software, Java Pathfinder, is classified as 'open source  
software.' Open source software is computer code that scientists make  
publicly available, often at no cost, so users can freely utilize and  
modify it. Java is a computer language that software developers  
frequently use to write programs for computer networks such as the  
Internet.

"Java PathFinder is a program that helps people find 'bugs'  in other 
programs," said John Penix, a computer scientist at NASA Ames  
Research Center, located in California's Silicon Valley. "PathFinder  
runs the program under test through a lot of trials, and tries to 
find a  test that will cause the program to fail."

NASA Ames is providing Java  PathFinder as 'open source' code at no 
cost to people who would like to use  it, according to Penix. "This 
will enable other people to help us improve  the PathFinder software," 
he said. "NASA will benefit from the improvements.  We're doing this 
so we can leverage the open-source community," he  added.

The Java Pathfinder work "is part of an effort to develop tools  and 
methods to identify and eliminate software errors in NASA's  
increasingly complex and mission-critical software systems," 
according  to David Korsmeyer, who leads the NASA Ames Intelligent 
Systems Division.  

"Java Pathfinder was used to detect inconsistencies in the executive  
software for the K9 Rover at NASA Ames," Korsmeyer said. The K9 rover 
is  a six-wheeled, solar-powered rover developed jointly at NASA Ames 
and NASA's  Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.

In addition, computer  scientists used elements of Java Pathfinder to 
develop verification computer  code for Livingstone 2 software, a 
diagnosis system now flying on the EO-1  spacecraft "and an example of 
the kind of autonomy software that will be  crucial to future NASA 
missions," Korsmeyer said.

"We're continuing  to develop software-testing technologies," said 
Penix. "NASA has a lot of  software, and it is difficult to get it 
right; so we want to take advantage  of all the work that is going on 
out there and incorporate it into our  tools," he explained.

According to scientists, if PathFinder finds an  error in a Java 
application, the software checker reports the whole process  that 
leads to the bug. Unlike a normal debugger, Java Pathfinder keeps  
track of every step the software checker takes to find a defect, 
Penix  noted.

"PathFinder already has been enhanced and tested by several  
universities and companies," Penix said. "Now, additional 
universities  can add more features to PathFinder," he said, 
describing how providing Java  Pathfinder to the computing world could 
benefit NASA. Pathfinder is in its  sixth year of active development.

NASA Ames scientists are offering Java  PathFinder on a Web site,  
SourceForge.net:

http://sourceforge.net/index.php

Publication-size  images are available  at:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/multimedia/images/2005/javapathfinder.html

SourceForge.net  is owned by Open Source Technology Group, Inc. Its 
parent company is VA  Software Corporation, Fremont, Calif. PathFinder 
is available under the NASA  Open Source Agreement, an open source 
license approved by the non-profit  Open Source Initiative 
(www.opensource.org). Java is a trademark of Sun  Microsystems.


 


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