NACHA, DTA etc. and s0c7.

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Shalini Singh
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NACHA, DTA etc. and s0c7.

Post by Shalini Singh »

I've a confusing question (I think) but it's a part of discussion I had been with one of my colleague...after some discussion the colleague made the below statement:

With respect to input/output files, if I've specification of a file format ( not just its layout but the sequence in which the records appear in the file), then can I write a tool that can say whether a given program that reads the input file can only process those file which exactly conform to the given file format and reject all other files ? i.e. can I write a tool that exactly says that the given program is bug free while handling all files that obey the specification ? I am referring to file format specifications like NACHA, DTA etc. here.

I think creating such a tool is not possible and probably sounds like an over ambitious project. Please share your thoughts.
enrico-sorichetti
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Re: NACHA, DTA etc. and s0c7.

Post by enrico-sorichetti »

what happened when You googled with ( for example ) nacha file format checker ?
cheers
enrico
When I tell somebody to RTFM or STFW I usually have the page open in another tab/window of my browser,
so that I am sure that the information requested can be reached with a very small effort 8-)
Shalini Singh
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Re: NACHA, DTA etc. and s0c7.

Post by Shalini Singh »

I was reading on NACHA an DTA file formats but did not check for "checker". I'll do that and get back here.
Shalini Singh
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Joined: Fri Jan 24, 2014 2:16 pm

Re: NACHA, DTA etc. and s0c7.

Post by Shalini Singh »

I got these three links among othere, which I thought are interesting:

http://www.achworks.com/index.php/en/pr ... chfilechex
https://www.columbiabank.com/cmdemo/7.3 ... idator.htm
http://www.achtools.com/

They all seem to validate the file by some means but they don't advocate that if the file is maked 'passed' by them the COBOL pogram usning them can be assured not to have a S0C7?
William Collins
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Re: NACHA, DTA etc. and s0c7.

Post by William Collins »

Validating a file is one thing, validating a program is another.

If you have a program A which is testing programs, how do you test program A? It has to work with a infinite number of programs.

Now, don't say "you're being silly, it's only working on these strictly-specced programs for a strictly-specced file". It has to work with any line of code changed/added/deleted. Or any two lines. Or any n lines.

OK, there's a human peer-review, only reasonable-looking changes get in. It is still very different validating a program than validating a file. With "good" code, so we don't need to validate all possible programs (only all possible "good" programs) we also need to validate with all possible files, or at the very least all possible variants which would make the program behave differently.

I think the Earth will have cooled noticeably before I'd see a "guarantee" on that, and then you'd still need to re-do it for the first change to the program...
Shalini Singh
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Joined: Fri Jan 24, 2014 2:16 pm

Re: NACHA, DTA etc. and s0c7.

Post by Shalini Singh »

I agree with you that, validating a file is one thing, validating a program is another and I'm on your side but my colleague is actually a scientist by position and some time i feel it's tough to make him understand. Though said that, but as we are talking about NACHA and DTA specifially, so do you think even with this restricted restrictions writing such a progem would be possible? My thought is that it can be possible in theory but not in practical.
enrico-sorichetti
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Re: NACHA, DTA etc. and s0c7.

Post by enrico-sorichetti »

validating a program is another
You might be interested in ...

http://klee.github.io/klee/
which leads to
http://llvm.org/pubs/2008-12-OSDI-KLEE.html
and to
http://llvm.org/pubs/2008-12-OSDI-KLEE.pdf
cheers
enrico
When I tell somebody to RTFM or STFW I usually have the page open in another tab/window of my browser,
so that I am sure that the information requested can be reached with a very small effort 8-)
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