Better Allpairs Test Tool
Microsoft has released a free test tool that does some pretty cool all-pairs test generation.
It’s called PICT. Unlike my tool, it has some sophisticated dependency handling.
I see only two downsides with it: a) they provide no diagnostic output, so you have to use elaborate hand checking or just hope that the output is correct. b) they don’t provide source code.
June 30th, 2006 at 7:43 am
I’ve been tinkering w/ PICT for a couple months and love it so far. I prefer the diagnostic output of your PERL prorgam, but PICT’s options are great.
Chris
http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com
July 4th, 2006 at 2:17 am
I agree, yes, PICT is really a very interesting tool!
I will talk about that topic in my 90-minute class “Combinatorial Testing Explained” at SD Best Practices Conference 2006 in Boston, MA, USA on September 13, 2006, see https://www.cmpevents.com/SDe6/a.asp?option=G&V=3&id=271406.
July 23rd, 2006 at 8:38 am
Thanks Peter, definitely interested in that.
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:36 am
On your recommendation I checked out PICT and find it a very useful tool. I like expecially the simple format of the input file. I used it to do a live demo yesterday and it worked every time I created a new file! I wonder how much I need to test the tool itself though? Has anyone reported any bugs on PICT yet?
[James' Reply: The great mystery of PICT is how is it tested and why should we trust it. It's not open source and there is no forum to support it, as far as I know.]
February 1st, 2007 at 8:46 am
I must say, I find that so far PICT is very trustworthy. The combinations are representative and complete. It is also a very useful tool with the option of creating constraints (which any other tool have limitations of).
But in my opinion PICT lacks speed, it takes forever to create a large test set with constraints and a large set of variables. It also ‘eats’ up all the resources of the CPU. But this is probably inherent to all pair wise test tools with constraints. But in all one of the best (freeware!) test tools.
April 12th, 2009 at 12:15 am
Nice tool indeed.
But it is not platform independent. I cannot use it on my linux machine, nor on my mac.
That’s why I prefere the perl script.
July 11th, 2009 at 8:15 am
So far out of all the tools I have seen on All pairs, PICT is the best. It is simple, light weight and provides many options like conditional filtering of the output, good user doc. One of the challenges is, composing the input file.
[James' Reply: It's a good tool, except that it provides no diagnostic output. You just have to trust it.]
November 4th, 2009 at 5:52 am
Hi james,
i have couple of queries in installation part:
one thing is iam not able to install it as it shows dos screen and closed once i click on allpairs.exe
and is it required to install pearl prior to run this exe in windows? pls provide me the the information as you explained in word with example , iam not able to get the output and run the command in command prompt.
(the example is with OS,Printer,Duplex)
regards,
sharath
[James' Reply: Run it from a DOS prompt.]