Release notes for IBM Rational Test RealTime

This document contains information about new features and enhancements for RationalIBM® Test RealTime and links to useful information about the products.

Contents

Description

Rational Test RealTime is a complete test and runtime analysis tool set for systems development created in any cross-development environment. Rational Test RealTime provides tools for automated component testing, code coverage, memory leak detection, performance profiling, and UML sequence diagram tracing.

New features and enhancements

  • Control Coupling for C language:
    • Control Coupling is defined as 'the manner or degree by which one software component influences the execution of another software component' in the 'Clarification of Structural Coverage Analysis of Data Coupling and Control Coupling' document edited by the Certification Authorities Software Team (CAST). See https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/air_cert/design_approvals/air_software/cast/cast_papers/media/cast-19.pdf. The purpose is to 'provide a measurement and assurance of the correctness of these modules/components' interactions and dependencies.'
    • Rational Test RealTime introduces a new coverage level call 'control coupling' for C language that consists of verifying that all the interactions between modules have been covered by at least one test. Here is how Rational Test RealTime is doing this new coverage level:
      • Modules for C language and compilation units (i.e. C files that are independently compiled).
      • Interactions are calls between 2 functions that are in 2 different compilation units.
      • A Control Coupling is not a simple interaction. It is a control flow in the calling module that ends with an interaction with another module.
    • For Control Coupling, Rational Test RealTime provides a brand new interactive HTML-based report.
  • Worst Stack Size for C language:
    • Rational Test RealTime introduces this new feature that computes an estimation of the maximum stack size by computing dynamically the stack size of each function and by using static analysis to build the call graph of the application and estimate the worst stack size.
    • Rational Test RealTime provides a brand-new interactive HTML-based report for the Worst Stack Size.
  • Code Review MISRA 2004 update:
    • Rational Test RealTime MISRA 2004 now covers 114 rules (+12), including 99 required rules (+8) and 15 advisory rules (+4).
    • Rational Test RealTime includes also 15 custom rules that are not part of MISRA but that can offer a good complement to MISRA 2004:
      • Functions should have less than '100' lines.
      • Functions should have less than '15' V(g) complexity.
      • Identifiers should not be ambiguous because of possible character confusion.
      • Identifiers should not be ambiguous because of possible character repetition.
      • Use the const qualification for pointer variable if not used to change the pointed object.
      • Global variables should be initialized.
      • Avoid implicit bitwise operator precedence in expressions.
      • Expressions that are effectively Boolean should not be used as operands to operators other than (&&, || and !).
      • Ternary expressions '?:' should not be used.
      • Expressions should not cause a side effect assignment.
      • Boolean expressions should not contain side effect operators.
      • The return keyword should not be used in a conditional block.
      • The else keyword should be followed by a compound statement.
      • A constant should not be used as a switch expression.
      • All functions should be referenced
    • Rational Test RealTime MISRA 2004 now includes a Qualification Kit.
  • Qualification Kit:
    • New Qualification Kit for Unit test C and Ada, Coverage C and Ada (HTML reports with improvement in differences between references and obtained results).
    • The Qualification Kit now integrates Control Coupling for C language.
    • The Qualification Kit now supports MISRA 2004.
  • Rational Test RealTime for Eclipse IDE improvements:
    • Rational Test RealTime for Eclipse IDE now supports assembler files in the build process.
    • Rational Test RealTime for Eclipse IDE allows to execute PTU files in the build process.
  • Rational Test RealTime supports UTF-16 C/C++ files.
  • A new TDP for Microsoft Visual C/C++ 2017 is now included in Rational Test RealTime.
  • Rational Test RealTime Unit Test for C language improvement: the variables with type enum in C language are displayed in the report with their literal value.
  • List of the platforms supported by Rational Test RealTime
    • Windows 7 Pro (64 bits),
    • Windows 10 (64 bits),
    • Windows Server 2016 (64bits),
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 (64 bits),
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 (64 bits),
    • SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 (64 bits),
    • SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 (64 bits),
    • Ubuntu 16 (64 bits),
    • Ubuntu 18 (64 bits).

System requirements

For information about hardware and software compatibility for Rational Test RealTime, see the http://www.ibm.com/software/reports/compatibility/clarity/softwareReqsForProduct.html .

Installing the product

You cannot upgrade Rational Test RealTime from an earlier version of the product to version 8.1. If you have an earlier version of the product, you must uninstall it before installing version 8.1.

To install the product, see the Installing section in the navigation. You will find additional information in the release note that is delivered with the product, especially details about supported platforms and integrations.

Fixed and known issues

See the release documentation that is delivered with the product, you will find the path to the known and fixed problems files.

You can find workarounds or solutions to problems that might apply to this release in the Support Knowledge Base at www.ibm.com/support/entry/portal/Overview/Software/Rational/Rational_Test_RealTime.

Contacting IBM Rational Software Support

IBM Rational Software Support provides you with technical assistance.

For contact information and guidelines or reference materials that you will need when you require support, read the IBM Software Support Handbook.

For FAQs, lists of known problems and fixes, and other support information, visit the product support pages at www.ibm.com/software/awdtools/tester/service/support/index.html.

For personalized support, including notifications of significant upgrades, register at http://www.ibm.com/support/mysupport/.

For Rational software product news, events, and other information, visit the IBM Rational Software Web site.

Before you contact IBM Rational Software Support, gather the background information that you will need to describe your problem. When describing a problem to an IBM software support specialist, be as specific as possible and include all relevant background information so that the specialist can help you solve the problem efficiently. To save time, know the answers to these questions:
  • What software versions were you running when the problem occurred?
  • Do you have logs, traces, or messages that are related to the problem?
  • Can you reproduce the problem? If so, what steps do you take to reproduce it?
  • Is there a workaround for the problem? If so, be prepared to describe the workaround.

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