The PADTAD 2010 workshop is a two-day event at ISSTA 2010, focusing on techniques and systems that aid in the testing, analysis, and debugging of multi-threaded, parallel and distributed applications and systems. The workshop has a practical and applied emphasis on systems that have been implemented in (at least) prototype form, but also welcomes submissions on teaching related issues on these topics.
Although debuggers and profilers are the traditional examples of testing and debugging tools on sequential machines, there are issues unique to concurrent systems that are not commonly addressed. Examples of such significant challenges include deadlock, load imbalance, data sharing patterns, race conditions, and contention. Established testing techniques and tools are insufficient for non-sequential programs because they largely ignore timing and scheduling, which are inherent in concurrent systems. Beyond the shortcomings of current tools and technologies, the rising generation of programmers and designers need to be more versed in concurrent systems design and programming.
