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Combining Static Analysis Techniques for Program Comprehension Using Slicito

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Paper breakdownThe authors' claims, conditions and measurements, as JSON Signed receiptProof this review has not been altered
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Robert Husák, Jan Kofroň, Filip Zavoral

Software Engineering · Submitted 19 Mar 2025

abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review

The authors' main claim This paper presents a new version of the tool SLICITO that allows developers to perform this kind of exploration on C# code in Visual Studio.

how it is stated · asserted 1.00 read the record →

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arXiv ID2503.15675 (version 1)
Pith IDEIBJL36Z, Pith's permanent record of this paper and its review
CitationFilip Zavoral, Jan Kofro\v{n}, Robert Hus\'ak. "Combining Static Analysis Techniques for Program Comprehension Using Slicito." arXiv:2503.15675 (2025). https://pith.science/paper/EIBJL36Z
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The compiled record

The paper's own sentences, arranged. Each label is drawn from a closed vocabulary; the number beside it is the probability the classifier gave that label. Numbers in the tables are the authors', checked by code. No sentence in this record was written by a model.

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Compiled by classifier-1.13.0 via TypeSafe API, question bank abstract-p1-20260923, 2026-09-23: 1 request, 5,010 input tokens.

What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.06 · states limitation 0.18 · human participants 0.17 · controlled comparison 0.03 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.03 · compares with prior results 0.26 · mentions code or data availability 0.28.

The abstract, sentence by sentence

arXiv listing abstract v1. Results and the main claim are underlined; .

While program comprehension tools often use static program analysis techniques to obtain useful information, they usually work only with sufficiently scalable techniques with limited precision. A possible improvement of this approach is to let the developer interactively reduce the scope of the code being analyzed and then apply a more precise analysis technique to the reduced scope. This paper presents a new version of the tool SLICITO that allows developers to perform this kind of exploration on C# code in Visual Studio. A common usage of SLICITO is to use interprocedural data-flow analysis to identify the parts of the code most relevant for the given task and then apply symbolic execution to reason about the precise behavior of these parts. Inspired by Moldable Development, SLICITO provides a set of program analysis and visualization building blocks that can be used to create specialized program comprehension tools directly in Visual Studio. We demonstrate the full scope of features on a real industrial example both in the text and in the following video: https://www.slicito.com/icpc2025video.mp4

background contribution method result interpretation main claim

What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#sentencerolethe authors' own workstates the main conclusionstrength
s0 While program comprehension tools often use static program analysis techniques to obtain useful information, they usually work only with sufficiently scalable techniques with limited precision. background 0.97 0.04 0.03 asserted 0.99
s1 A possible improvement of this approach is to let the developer interactively reduce the scope of the code being analyzed and then apply a more precise analysis technique to the reduced scope. background 0.54 0.06 0.07 hedged possibility 1.00
s2 This paper presents a new version of the tool SLICITO that allows developers to perform this kind of exploration on C# code in Visual Studio. contribution 1.00 0.83 0.17 asserted 1.00
s3 A common usage of SLICITO is to use interprocedural data-flow analysis to identify the parts of the code most relevant for the given task and then apply symbolic execution to reason about the precise behavior of these parts. method 0.94 0.44 0.14 asserted 0.99
s4 Inspired by Moldable Development, SLICITO provides a set of program analysis and visualization building blocks that can be used to create specialized program comprehension tools directly in Visual Studio. contribution 0.85 0.69 0.10 asserted 1.00
s5 We demonstrate the full scope of features on a real industrial example both in the text and in the following video: https://www.slicito.com/icpc2025video.mp4 contribution 0.75 0.90 0.06 asserted 1.00

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: method or tool 1.00 · evidence from observation or experiment 0.90.

What was examined, and what was not

sources read
  • arXiv listing abstract v1
not examined
  • full text
  • figures and tables
  • references and citing sentences
  • relations to other papers
levels run
  • P abstract
not run
  • S sections
  • T body sentences
  • C citations
  • R cross-paper relations

Every quoted sentence on this record is the authors'. Every label is from Pith's closed vocabulary, with the probability shown beside it. Every number in the measurements table is the authors', checked by code. Record as JSON

The paper
Original abstract

While program comprehension tools often use static program analysis techniques to obtain useful information, they usually work only with sufficiently scalable techniques with limited precision. A possible improvement of this approach is to let the developer interactively reduce the scope of the code being analyzed and then apply a more precise analysis technique to the reduced scope. This paper presents a new version of the tool SLICITO that allows developers to perform this kind of exploration on C# code in Visual Studio. A common usage of SLICITO is to use interprocedural data-flow analysis to identify the parts of the code most relevant for the given task and then apply symbolic execution to reason about the precise behavior of these parts. Inspired by Moldable Development, SLICITO provides a set of program analysis and visualization building blocks that can be used to create specialized program comprehension tools directly in Visual Studio. We demonstrate the full scope of features on a real industrial example both in the text and in the following video: https://www.slicito.com/icpc2025video.mp4

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