David L Bullock

US Patent:

6286131, Sep 4, 2001

Filed:

Dec 3, 1997

Appl. No.:

8/984540

Inventors:

Jennifer Jane Hadlock Beers - Bothell WA
Samuel C. Atwater - Duvall WA
David Arthur Bullock - Bellevue WA

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 9445

US Classification:

717 4

Abstract:

A debugging tool which generates information useful as an aide in debugging a computer-executable application which accepts an input and generates an output as a function of the input. The tool is used to initiate the execution of the computer-executable application and supply as an input thereto test objects selected from a database. The output generated as a result of the test objects is formed into actual result objects which are then compared to either expected result objects, which have been entered by the user, or previously archived actual result objects, which have been generated by a previous use of the tool. The comparison provides meaningful information for use in evaluating the current state of the computer-executable application. Providing the objects with various tags allows the objects or information contained therein to be grouped according to some desired criteria and/or pulled from the database for examination in response to a query.