Look, there's no easy way to do this. I'm working on a project that is inherently multithreaded. Events come in from the operating system and I have to process them concurrently.
The simplest way to deal with testing complex, multithreaded application code is this: If it's too complex to test, you're doing it wrong. If you have a single instance that has multiple threads acting upon it, and you can't test situations where these threads step all over each other, then your design needs to be redone. It's both as simple and as complex as this.
There are many ways to program for multithreading that avoids threads running through instances at the same time. The simplest is to make all your objects immutable. Of course, that's not usually possible. So you have to identify those places in your design where threads interact with the same instance and reduce the number of those places. By doing this, you isolate a few classes where multithreading actually occurs, reducing the overall complexity of testing your system.
But you have to realize that even by doing this, you still can't test every situation where two threads step on each other. To do that, you'd have to run two threads concurrently in the same test, then control exactly what lines they are executing at any given moment. The best you can do is simulate this situation. But this might require you to code specifically for testing, and that's at best a half step towards a true solution.
Probably the best way to test code for threading issues is through static analysis of the code. If your threaded code doesn't follow a finite set of thread safe patterns, then you might have a problem. I believe Code Analysis in VS does contain some knowledge of threading, but probably not much.
Look, as things stand currently (and probably will stand for a good time to come), the best way to test multithreaded apps is to reduce the complexity of threaded code as much as possible. Minimize areas where threads interact, test as best as possible, and use code analysis to identify danger areas.
Update:
Some 10 years later perhaps the best way to test a private method, or any inaccessible member, is via @Jailbreak from the Manifold framework.
@Jailbreak Foo foo = new Foo();
// Direct, *type-safe* access to *all* foo's members
foo.privateMethod(x, y, z);
foo.privateField = value;
This way your code remains type-safe and readable. No design compromises, no overexposing methods and fields for the sake of tests.
If you have somewhat of a legacy Java application, and you're not allowed to change the visibility of your methods, the best way to test private methods is to use reflection.
Internally we're using helpers to get/set private and private static variables as well as invoke private and private static methods. The following patterns will let you do pretty much anything related to the private methods and fields. Of course, you can't change private static final variables through reflection.
Method method = TargetClass.getDeclaredMethod(methodName, argClasses);
method.setAccessible(true);
return method.invoke(targetObject, argObjects);
And for fields:
Field field = TargetClass.getDeclaredField(fieldName);
field.setAccessible(true);
field.set(object, value);
Notes:
1. TargetClass.getDeclaredMethod(methodName, argClasses) lets you look into private methods. The same thing applies for
getDeclaredField.
2. The setAccessible(true) is required to play around with privates.
Best Answer
Sure. In the automotive industry we use $100,000 custom built testers for each new product to verify the hardware and software are operating correctly.
The developers, however, also build a cheaper (sub $1,000) tester that includes a bunch of USB I/O, A/D, PWM in/out, etc and either use scripting on the workstation, or purpose built HIL/SIL test software such as MxVDev.
Hardware in the Loop (HIL) testing is probably what you mean, and it simply involves some USB hardware I/O connected to the I/O of your device, with software on the computer running tests against it.
Whether it's worth it depends.
In the high reliability industry (airplane, automotive, etc) the customer specifies very extensive hardware testing, so you have to have it just to get the bid.
In the consumer industry, with non complex projects it's usually not worth it.
With any project where there's more than a few programmers involved, though, it's really nice to have a nightly regression test run on the hardware - it's hard to correctly simulate the hardware to the degree needed to satisfy yourself that the software testing is enough.
The testing then shows immediately when a problem has entered the build.
Generally you perform both black box and white box testing - you have diagnostic code running on the device that allows you to spy on signals and memory in the hardware (which might just be a debugger, or might be code you wrote that reacts to messages on a bus, for instance). This would be white box testing where you can see what's happening internally (and even cause some things to happen, such as critical memory errors which can't be tested without introducing the error yourself).
We also run a bunch of 'black box' tests where the diagnostic path is ignored and only the I/O is stimulated/read.
For a much cheaper setup, you can get $100 microcontroller boards with USB and/or ethernet (such as the Atmel UC3 family) which you can connect to your device and run basic testing.
It's especially useful for product maintenance - when the project is done, store a few working boards, the tester, and a complete set of software on CD. When you need to make a modification or debug a problem, it's easy to set it all back up and work on it with some knowledge (after testing) that the major functionality was not affected by your changes.
-Adam