Patent ID: 7216337

Claim:
In a computing system that is capable of executing an object, a method for automatically identifying invalid call sequences that give rise to exceptions in order to ensure that the exceptions thrown are representative of the invalid call sequences, the method comprising: an act of automatically generating a set of operations that may be performed by an object, each operation including a method of the object as well as zero or more parameters associated with the object; an act of automatically constructing a call sequence of operations from the set of operations, wherein at least one of the methods within the call sequence includes one or more parameters generated in order to encourage an exception when executed using the object; an act of automatically identifying that an exception was thrown as a result of executing the call sequence using the object; upon the exception having been thrown as a result of executing the call sequence, an act of automatically identifying the call sequence having caused the exception as an invalid call sequence; an act of reporting the occurrence of the exception and the call sequence that gave rise to the exception for identifying the call sequence as an invalid call secquence; and an act of determining if the exception thrown as a result of the invalid call sequence was appropriate.