Related papers: LitterBox: A Linter for Scratch Programs

Bugs that are detected earlier during the development lifecycle are easier and cheaper to fix, whereas bugs that are found during production are difficult and expensive to address, and may have dire consequences. Type systems are…

Bugs are notoriously challenging: they slow down software users and result in time-consuming investigations for developers. These challenges are exacerbated when bugs must be reported in natural language by users. Indeed, we lack reliable…

Natural language elements in source code, e.g., the names of variables and functions, convey useful information. However, most existing bug detection tools ignore this information and therefore miss some classes of bugs. The few existing…

A code smell is a surface indicator of an inherent problem in the system, most often due to deviation from standard coding practices on the developers part during the development phase. Studies observe that code smells made the code more…

LLMs trained in the understanding of programming syntax are now providing effective assistance to developers and are being used in programming education such as in generation of coding problem examples or providing code explanations. A key…

Code smells are characteristics of the software that indicates a code or design problem which can make software hard to understand, evolve, and maintain. The code smell detection tools proposed in the literature produce different results,…

As quantum programming evolves, more and more quantum programming languages are being developed. As a result, debugging and testing quantum programs have become increasingly important. While bug fixing in classical programs has come a long…

Logging code is written by developers to capture system runtime behavior and plays a vital role in debugging, performance analysis, and system monitoring. However, defects in logging code can undermine the usefulness of logs and lead to…

Ensuring the quality of quantum programs is increasingly important; however, traditional static analysis techniques are insufficient due to the unique characteristics of quantum computing. Quantum-specific linting tools, such as LintQ, have…

Recent advancements in quantum computing software are gradually increasing the scope and size of quantum programs being developed. At the same time, however, these larger programs provide more possibilities for functional errors that are…

Test smells are coding issues that typically arise from inadequate practices, a lack of knowledge about effective testing, or deadline pressures to complete projects. The presence of test smells can negatively impact the maintainability and…

Logging code plays an important role in software systems by recording key events and behaviors, which are essential for debugging and monitoring. However, insecure logging practices can inadvertently expose sensitive information or enable…

Machine learning is nowadays a standard technique for data analysis within software applications. Software engineers need quality assurance techniques that are suitable for these new kinds of systems. Within this article, we discuss the…

Code sandboxes have emerged as a critical infrastructure for advancing the coding capabilities of large language models, providing verifiable feedback for both RL training and evaluation. However, existing systems fail to provide accurate…

Proof Blocks is a software tool which enables students to write proofs by dragging and dropping prewritten proof lines into the correct order. These proofs can be graded completely automatically, enabling students to receive rapid feedback…

Fixing bugs in large programs is a challenging task that demands substantial time and effort. Once a bug is found, it is reported to the project maintainers, who work with the reporter to fix it and eventually close the issue. However,…

Logging plays a central role in ensuring reproducibility, observability, and reliability in machine learning (ML) systems. While logging is generally considered a good engineering practice, poorly designed logging can negatively affect…

Static analysis is a widely used technique in software engineering for identifying and mitigating bugs. However, a significant hurdle lies in achieving a delicate balance between precision and scalability. Large Language Models (LLMs) offer…

Large Language Models (LLMs) are one of the most promising developments in the field of artificial intelligence, and the software engineering community has readily noticed their potential role in the software development life-cycle.…

Static bug detection tools help developers detect problems in the code, including bad programming practices and potential defects. Recent efforts to integrate static bug detectors in modern software development workflows, such as in code…