Testing your STL programs

To ensure that programs are performing as anticipated, test your programs as you develop them. Testing is a two-step process, involving syntax testing and logic testing.

The STL Translator checks program syntax when it translates your STL programs into message generation decks. See Using the STL Translator for more information about how programs are translated and how syntax errors are treated. Correct syntax is only part of creating functioning programs. It does not necessarily mean that programs will act as expected. It only means that your programs will not stop executing because of syntax errors. You must also test the logic of the programs.

To test the logic of your programs, you must know what message traffic and terminal activity you are expecting. Your requirements for each terminal should be specified in the test plan. Before testing your programs, you must combine network definitions and STL programs if they are not included in the same data set. See Combining STL programs and network definitions for information about how to combine them.

Then, request STL message traces by coding STLTRACE=YES in your network definition.WSim will log special STL trace messages during the simulation run. After you run your simulation, run the Loglist Utility requesting STL message traces. Information about using the Loglist Utility appears in WSim Utilities Guide. Specific information about using the Loglist Utility with STL message traces appears in Obtaining STL trace records.