Patent ID: 7546585

Claim:
A method for testing computer programs, the method comprising: defining one or more force stop points for a target computer program, wherein the force stop points are included in the target computer program; selectively activating one or more of the one or more force stop points as one or more selected force stop points in response to receiving one or more arguments for interpretation by the target computer program, the one or more arguments identifying the one or more force stop points to activate while executing the target computer program; and for each of the selected force stop points: executing the target computer program in a force stop mode wherein the executing in the force stop mode results in the target computer program terminating when the selected force stop point has been reached and the executing in the force stop mode results in a residual environment; executing the target computer program in a non force stop mode in the residual environment, wherein output from the executing in the non force stop mode includes test result data; and determining if the test result data is consistent with expected test results.