In 2016 we introduced a tool called "Spest// for the automated generation of software tests from formal specifications. That introductory presentation of Spest described its basic functionality and our initial results of using Spest in software engineering courses. Here we describe further experience of using Spest in classes, including qualitative and quantitative analyses of its effectiveness. The analysis consists of a qualitative survey of students/ experience, a quantitative study of the readability of Spest-generated tests, and a quantitative analysis that compares the coverage quality of hand-written student tests with Spest-generated tests. The results of the analyses are mixed. The experience survey finds that a majority of students did not enjoy using Spest nor fully understand how to use it effectively. The results of the readability study show that Spest-generated tests are not as readable for students as tests written by human experts, however the differences in readability are not extreme. Finally, the results of the coverage comparison are good, showing that Spest-generated tests achieve better code coverage than students/ hand-written tests. Given the mixed results, we discuss how we are moving forward to make Spest a more usable and effective tool.

The use of formal methods in software engineering has been advocated for a long time, by a lot of people. Unfortunately, advocates of formal methods remain a distinct minority among software engineering educators, as well as industrial practitioners. A number of reasons have been cited for the lack of acceptance of formal methods. Popular among these reasons is that formal methods lack relevance and utility to the everyday work of software engineers.

A programming environment to support the development and use of engineering applications is presented. The environment provides uniform support for a set of Pascal-class languages in which engineering and scientific applications are commonly written. The environment includes a dynamically multilanguage interpreter debugger to aid in the interactive development of applications. For the application and user, the environment provides a graphical program interface based on the concept of a software control panel. Through a control panel, the user may interactively modify program parameters and exercise fine-grain control over program execution. The environment also includes a graphical design tool for constructing executable block diagrams based on standard application programs. The control-panel tool is integrated with the design tool, to provide a uniform interface to all levels of program execution.>