Witter: A Library for White-Box Testing of Introductory Programming Algorithm...
summary
Witter is a Java library that runs student code against an annotated reference solution and compares not just outputs but array read/write counts, loop and recursive call counts, and argument side effects to detect which algorithm was implemented. It hooks into the Strudel interpreter to listen to execution events, uses comment annotations for test specs, and already discriminates iterative vs recursive factorial, linear vs binary search, and insertion vs selection sort. Prototype works for small, isolated assignments; stateful tests and richer metrics remain future work.
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chapters (12)
- 0:00Witter introduction
- 1:27Automated assessment problems
- 4:59White-box testing approach
- 6:23Using Witter in practice
- 8:28Factorial demo
- 10:33Binary search validation
- 11:36Insertion sort side effects
- 13:00Witter implementation
- 15:04Future features
- 16:51Supporting student solutions
- 17:34Impact on learning
- 25:18Q&A
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