Firas Wahdan

3/28/2014
CS 321

FindBugs seemed like a very convenient plugin to use with Eclipse due to the fact that it
runs code projects and simultaneously detects bugs that are common based on patterns and
tendencies of coding. The plugin in theory will significantly assist in accomplishing a task that is
commonly known to be very tedious, time consuming and inefficient due to the fact that bugs are
often left unchecked or unattended in code. I initially had issues with installation of FindBugs
prior to discovering that it could be installed through the Eclipse marketplace and configured to
user preference. Secondly, there were issues with how to properly use the tool with the given
source code to test it on, it seemed that the FindBugs tool would not find bugs on particular
code unless it was on an Eclipse project folder and was located in the src file, otherwise the tool
would not run. It took some time to find out how to add the .java files to an empty projects
source file and then to actually run the tool on it. It took several tries but eventually I was able to
properly import the files and run the tool. After running it on the source code, bugs were found
and listed in the bottom panel as expected, but not exactly how I expected. There seemed to be
a hierarchy set up of the bugs that were found, ranked in their level of seriousness, indicating to
the programmer if the found bug is perhaps something that should be looked at and fixed or if it
can be looked over and only flagged because it matches the pattern the tools algorithm. This
seemed self explanatory at first, but I found it difficult to understand what some of the bugs were
referring to, as in what exactly needed fixing. FindBugs indicated what the current code does if
run as it is, however that leaves the programmer to figure out the proper fix themselves, which is
typical but not really what I expected. However, when fixes were made to the code, despite the
fact that the fixes did resolve the issue listed in FindBugs the flag would not go away at times
even after restarting and re-running the tool on the fixed code. Overall I thought FindBugs is a
really efficient tool and can be very helpful if the programmer has a good understanding of how
to utilize it to supplement their work instead of becoming overly dependent on it. I feel as if using
this tool can be risky for inexperienced coders who may see FindBugs as a means of checking
code flawlessly and identifying mistakes, not taking the fact that it only covers common coding
errors and does not account for abstract errors into consideration. Otherwise, I feel this tool
when used properly can genuinely lower the amount of time taken in the development process.