Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

International Business Machines Corporation

Emery D Berger

Benjamin Zorn

Rodric Rabbah

Charles M Curtsinger

Daniel W Barowy

Output is obtained from a remote computer function on a first set of arguments. Responsive to determining that the output exhibits an error, a fixer routine, other than a retry, is applied to the arguments to produce new arguments. Output is obtained from the remote computer function on the new arguments. In a case where the output from the remote computer function on the new arguments is acceptable, the output from the remote computer function on the new arguments is used as a corresponding output from the remote computer function on the first set of arguments. These steps can advantageously be carried out without modifying program code of the remote computer function and without access to the program code of the remote computer function; for example, by a wrapper which black-box wraps the remote computer function.

Automatic error fixes for high-availability applications

The techniques described herein use statistical reasoning to determine whether a spreadsheet (e.g., cells) includes potential errors. The techniques determine a partition within a spreadsheet where the partition includes cells that share characteristics (e.g., same row or column, same type of content, same formatting, etc.). Once determined, the partition is evaluated based on defined properties. A property is applied to generate property values so that an anomaly can be identified. An anomaly can occur when a cell in the partition has a property value that is inconsistent with other property values of other cells in the same partition (e.g., an intra-partition anomaly). An anomaly can also occur when a cell in the partition has a property value that is inconsistent with property values of cells in a different partition (e.g., an inter-partition anomaly). The techniques analyze the anomalies to determine a priority value indicative of a likelihood of a potential error.

Detecting errors in spreadsheets

Software program robustness is improved by successfully masking memory safety errors in the software program. For instance, at least some memory safety errors in a software program can be masked by using a runtime memory manager that approximates the semantics of an infinite heap memory manager. In one example, an approximation of an infinite heap memory manager is implemented by configuring a parameterized memory manager with parameter values such as padding to be added to each allocation on the heap and the amount of deferment before executing a call to free memory on the heap. Ideal configurations balance expected robustness with costs such as added memory and processing time. Ideal configurations can be identified through systematic search of a coordinate space of selected parameters. Ideal configurations can also be identified by statistically correlating success/failure data collected from execution of deployed instances of the software program to the configuration of the memory managers used therein.

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Emery D Berger