In software testing, monkey testing is a technique where the user tests the application or system by providing random inputs and checking the behavior, or seeing whether the application or system will crash. Monkey testing is usually implemented as random, automated unit tests.
While the source of the name "monkey" is uncertain, it is believed by some that the name has to do with the infinite monkey theorem, [1] which states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare. Some others believe that the name comes from the classic Mac OS application "The Monkey" developed by Steve Capps prior to 1983. It used journaling hooks to feed random events into Mac programs, and was used to test for bugs in MacPaint. [2]
Monkey Testing is also included in Android Studio as part of the standard testing tools for stress testing. [3]
Monkey testing can be categorized into smart monkey tests or dumb monkey tests.
Smart monkeys are usually identified by the following characteristics: [4]
Some smart monkeys are also referred to as brilliant monkeys,[ citation needed ] which perform testing as per user's behavior and can estimate the probability of certain bugs.
Dumb monkeys, also known as "ignorant monkeys", are usually identified by the following characteristics:[ citation needed ]
Monkey testing is an effective way to identify some out-of-the-box errors. Since the scenarios tested are usually ad-hoc, monkey testing can also be a good way to perform load and stress testing. The intrinsic randomness of monkey testing also makes it a good way to find major bugs that can break the entire system. The setup of monkey testing is easy, therefore good for any application. Smart monkeys, if properly set up with an accurate state model, can be really good at finding various kinds of bugs.
The randomness of monkey testing often makes the bugs found difficult or impossible to reproduce. Unexpected bugs found by monkey testing can also be challenging and time consuming to analyze. In some systems, monkey testing can go on for a long time before finding a bug. For smart monkeys, the ability highly depends on the state model provided, and developing a good state model can be expensive. [1]
While monkey testing is sometimes treated the same as fuzz testing [5] and the two terms are usually used together, [6] some believe they are different by arguing that monkey testing is more about random actions while fuzz testing is more about random data input. [7] Monkey testing is also different from ad-hoc testing in that ad-hoc testing is performed without planning and documentation and the objective of ad-hoc testing is to divide the system randomly into subparts and check their functionality, which is not the case in monkey testing.
Software testing is the act of checking whether software satisfies expectations.
A terminal emulator, or terminal application, is a computer program that emulates a video terminal within some other display architecture. Though typically synonymous with a shell or text terminal, the term terminal covers all remote terminals, including graphical interfaces. A terminal emulator inside a graphical user interface is often called a terminal window.
In computing, cross-platform software is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software requires a separate build for each platform, but some can be directly run on any platform without special preparation, being written in an interpreted language or compiled to portable bytecode for which the interpreters or run-time packages are common or standard components of all supported platforms.
Unit testing, a.k.a. component or module testing, is a form of software testing by which isolated source code is tested to validate expected behavior.
C++Builder is a rapid application development (RAD) environment for developing software in the C++ programming language. Originally developed by Borland, as of 2009 it is owned by Embarcadero Technologies, a subsidiary of Idera. C++Builder can compile apps for Windows, iOS, macOS, and Android. It includes tools that allow drag-and-drop visual development, making programming easier by incorporating a WYSIWYG graphical user interface builder.
Black-box testing, sometimes referred to as specification-based testing, is a method of software testing that examines the functionality of an application without peering into its internal structures or workings. This method of test can be applied virtually to every level of software testing: unit, integration, system and acceptance. Black-box testing is also used as a method in penetration testing, where an ethical hacker simulates an external hacking or cyber warfare attack with no knowledge of the system being attacked.
Delphi is a general-purpose programming language and a software product that uses the Delphi dialect of the Object Pascal programming language and provides an integrated development environment (IDE) for rapid application development of desktop, mobile, web, and console software, currently developed and maintained by Embarcadero Technologies.
In programming and software development, fuzzing or fuzz testing is an automated software testing technique that involves providing invalid, unexpected, or random data as inputs to a computer program. The program is then monitored for exceptions such as crashes, failing built-in code assertions, or potential memory leaks. Typically, fuzzers are used to test programs that take structured inputs. This structure is specified, such as in a file format or protocol and distinguishes valid from invalid input. An effective fuzzer generates semi-valid inputs that are "valid enough" in that they are not directly rejected by the parser, but do create unexpected behaviors deeper in the program and are "invalid enough" to expose corner cases that have not been properly dealt with.
The Metasploit Project is a computer security project that provides information about security vulnerabilities and aids in penetration testing and IDS signature development. It is owned by Boston, Massachusetts-based security company, Rapid7.
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Stress testing is a software testing activity that determines the robustness of software by testing beyond the limits of normal operation. Stress testing is particularly important for "mission critical" software, but is used for all types of software. Stress tests commonly put a greater emphasis on robustness, availability, and error handling under a heavy load, than on what would be considered correct behavior under normal circumstances.
TestComplete is a functional automated testing platform developed by SmartBear Software. TestComplete gives testers the ability to create automated tests for Microsoft Windows, Web, Android, and iOS applications. Tests can be recorded, scripted or manually created with keyword driven operations and used for automated playback and error logging.
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FireMonkey is a cross-platform GUI framework developed by Embarcadero Technologies for use in Delphi, C++Builder or Python, using Object Pascal, C++ or Python to build cross-platform applications for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. A third-party library, FMX Linux, enables the building of FireMonkey applications on Linux.
Chaos engineering is the discipline of experimenting on a system in order to build confidence in the system's capability to withstand turbulent conditions in production.
Data scraping is a technique where a computer program extracts data from human-readable output coming from another program.
American Fuzzy Lop (AFL), stylized in all lowercase as american fuzzy lop, is a free software fuzzer that employs genetic algorithms in order to efficiently increase code coverage of the test cases. So far it has detected dozens of significant software bugs in major free software projects, including X.Org Server, PHP, OpenSSL, pngcrush, bash, Firefox, BIND, Qt, and SQLite.
This article discusses a set of tactics useful in software testing. It is intended as a comprehensive list of tactical approaches to software quality assurance and general application of the test method.
Differential testing, also known as differential fuzzing, is a software testing technique that detect bugs, by providing the same input to a series of similar applications, and observing differences in their execution. Differential testing complements traditional software testing because it is well-suited to find semantic or logic bugs that do not exhibit explicit erroneous behaviors like crashes or assertion failures. Differential testing is also called back-to-back testing.
This page details the history of the programming language and software product Delphi.