title: Basic vs. compound condition coverage
body: <p>I'm trying to get my head around the differences between these 2 coverage criteria and I can't work out how they differ. I think I'm failing to understand exactly what decision coverage is. My software testing textbook states that compound decision coverage can be costly (2<sup>n</sup> combinations for n basic conditions).</p>
  
  <p>I would have thought basic condition coverage would be costlier.</p>
  
  <p>Consider <code>a &amp;&amp; b &amp;&amp; c &amp;&amp; d &amp;&amp; e</code>. My understanding is that in basic condition coverage, each of these atomic variables have to have the value TRUE and FALSE in a test case for the test case to be have basic condition adequacy - that's 32 different test cases. </p>
  
  <p>So what is the actual difference, and what is referred to as a "basic condition". In the example above, is <code>a</code> a basic condition?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks.</p>