From: Leslie Viljoen <leslieviljoen@...>
Date: 2006-09-21T05:50:42+09:00
Subject: Re: Ducktator - A Duck Type Validator

On 9/20/06, Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Leslie Viljoen <leslieviljoen@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Ah thank-you, that's great. But it would not work unless every
> > execution path within the method receiving the object was executed:
>
> Well, yes.  I didn't say it's perfect. :-)
>
> > ..so is there some magic that could overcome that limitation?
>
> You could make Probe significantly more complex so that it records invoked
> methods and alters the return value between true and false or something else
> etc. and goes on probing until no new execution sequences are found.  I
> guess this can soon get messy...

Yes, it starts out as a nice idea. And while it's doing all that
probing, who knows what side-effects it might be producing in that
alien code?!

Let me see, why not try:

format_harddrive_if_input_above_5(probe)

Whoops!

Anyway, there are still places where it helps, I'm not complaining ;-)

Les