question about a phrase

[Guest]

hey all,

i was reading an article on Testing.Net Application Blocks and I came across
a phrase in the article:

White box testing

and i think i missed the class on this terminology. and this is not the only
place i see this type of phrase. the term black box seems to come up too.
what does this mean?

thanks,
rodchar

 

[John Spiegel]

Hey rodchar,

As to white box (from
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/White_Box_Testing.html):

"Also known as glass box, structural, clear box and open box testing. A
software testing technique whereby explicit knowledge of the internal
workings of the item being tested are used to select the test data. Unlike
black box testing, white box testing uses specific knowledge of programming
code to examine outputs. The test is accurate only if the tester knows what
the program is supposed to do. He or she can then see if the program
diverges from its intended goal. White box testing does not account for
errors caused by omission, and all visible code must also be readable.

"For a complete software examination, both white box and black box tests are
required."

Black box testing would be where the tests don't care or even know what the
inner workings are of the component.

HTH,

John