VC++ Compiler Front-End Testing

Visual CPP Team

Hi, my name is Liu Xiong. I am the test lead for the Microsoft Visual C++ Front End QA team. Our passion is shipping the greatest C++ compiler to our customers. We are a very customer oriented team. The big challenge for us is protecting our C++ users from compiler breaking changes, while we also need ship the compiler with COOL new features and high conformance. People might be interested about how we test our compiler Front End. First we have very technical software engineers for directly testing the compiler. We understand every feature area; we create all types of evil test cases to break it; we focus on all platforms and configuration environments. We also build with real world code to detect new regressions, for instance we build NT for every live build. In our new product cycle, the C++ compiler front end team has a great opportunity to start a force multiplier project to build a new generation C++ compiler. Our test team also has a new opportunity to test a modern compiler with new testing methodologies. For instance, we might be able to directly write AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) checkers in the compiler source to verify the object model. We might be able to use new compiler extensions to add testing hook functions to verify the compiler in the API base. I am very excited by our new opportunities to ship a highly advanced compiler to our customers. I would be happy to discuss any compiler testing ideas and techniques.

 

Liu Xiong

Visual C++ Compiler

Posted in C++

1 comment

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  • jhon 0

    Well done great teamwork.
    howtotechies

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