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"Finding bugs without running or even looking at code" by Jay Parlar

Strange Loop Conference · 41.8K views · 2019-09-14 · 40:27

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Overview

Jay Parlar's Strange Loop talk shows how model checkers such as Alloy can find complex bugs in a system's design without running or reading any code. He walks through modeling architectures and checking every possible sequence of operations, including a real security bug and a UI feature-interaction bug.

On Hacker News

HN commenters point to it as the best practical introduction to Alloy and to lightweight formal modeling.

Recommended by 4 HN people across 4 months · HN mentions 2019–2023

Topics

Logic & formal methodsTesting, debugging & developer toolsSoftware architecture & design
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alloymodel checkingformal methodssoftware designbug finding

What people said

ParetoOptimal · 2023-04 · Strong recommendation

I was exposed to alloy by this wonderful video: "Finding bugs without running or even looking at code" by Jay Parlar [VIDEO] I believe the general idea could be applicable in practice for core parts of most businesses software. So now I'm very interested in real world accounts of using alloy like this. Anyone have other posts like this one or experiences to share along these lines?

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hwayne · 2019-10 · Strong recommendation

There was a fantastic talk at strangeloop this year on Alloy: [VIDEO] . The speaker used it to find a serious security bug in their live code and a feature interaction bug in their UI that had meant they had been writing broken code for the past _year_. (full disclosure I'm referenced towards the end)

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_andrei_ · 2023-10 · Recommendation

There is a talk that gives a good overview on Alloy and how useful using something like this is: "Finding bugs without running or even looking at code" by Jay Parlar [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Strange Loop Conference, played through YouTube.

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