TracePoint Ships Visual Coverage for Visual Basic; Powerful Code Coverage Analysis Tool for Visual Basic and Visual C++ Now Available.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 1, 1997--TracePoint Technology, Inc. announced today that it is now shipping Visual Coverage, for Visual Basic and Visual Coverage Combo which combines the new Visual Basic version with the popular C++ version.

Visual Coverage improves code quality by clearly identifying exactly which portions of the code have not been tested, enabling developers to drill down on those portions of the application that need further analysis. This flexibility allows retrieval of the most useful information and helps obtain the highest level of coverage possible for superior application quality.

Using patented Binary Code Instrumentation (BCI) technology, Visual Coverage gathers information using code instrumentation rather than PC sampling. In code instrumentation, tracepoints, or "software probes" are added into compiled and linked binaries to collect data on the application's execution. This technique makes it possible to gather more detailed and accurate information and enables developers to work on executables and dlls -- no source code or obj fite to the source code. Coverage information can be displayed in a variety of formats, including pie charts, bar charts, and multiple sort orders. With Visual Coverage, developers can selectively include or exclude code for analysis, and easily identify all dead code for deletion to streamline an application.

"The ability to work with binary code in Visual Coverage is a tremendous advantage because we don't have to spend time recompiling modified source code every time we want to test a new build," said Maribeth Ahne, Associate Programmer at Lexmark International. "Visual Coverage's intuitive user interface makes it much easier to use than other code coverage products we've tried, and we're very pleased with the accuracy of the results."

"Visual Coverage helps ensure that untested code never reaches end users. It provides a high level of precision and produces fast results," said Janel Garvin, product line manager for tools at TracePoint. "QA professionals will benefit from Visual Coverage's ability to accelerate the testing process by selective instrumentation of those portions of code that are of immediate interest."

Visual Coverage 1.1 Features:

Visual Coverage offers robust reporting features that enable developers to generate reports on the percent of code executed, as well as the specific areas that need further testing. For each test run, developers can select coverage on any or all of the following:

-- Function coverage - shows which functions have and have not been executed

-- Class coverage - view coverage by classes and by methods

-- Code coverage - identifies which instructions have and have not been executed

-- Line coverage-maps completed execution to specific lines of source code

-- Branch coverage - shows which logical branches were and weren't taken

-- Multiple condition coverage - shows whether each condition was covered with both the true and false values

-- Call Pair coverage - identifies which calls were and weren't executed

Pricing and Availability:

All three versions of Visual Coverage 1.1 are available now from resellers with the following suggested list prices and can be downloaded from the TracePoint Web site at www.tracepoint.com or ordered direct from TracePoint at [phone].

Visual Coverage for C++: $995

Visual Coverage for VB: $995

Visual Coverage Combo pack: $1495

TracePoint Technology

TracePoint Technology, Inc., based in San Jose, California is an independent subsidiary of Digital Equipment Corporation. TracePoint is committed to leveraging its Binary Code Instrumentation Framework to deliver a new generation of software performance and quality assurance tools. For further information call: [phone], fax: [phone], www: http://www.tracepoint.com .

CONTACT: TracePoint Technology

Janel Garvin, 408/283-5371

[e-mail]

or

Nadel Phelan Inc.

Paula Phelan, 408/439-5570

[e-mail]