Static Program Analysis Specialization via Coding Time Metrics
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Solution Overview
Problem
Static program analysis tools face a tradeoff between accuracy and scalability, with existing specialization techniques being expensive and requiring non-trivial analyses, necessitating a method to balance precision and efficiency.
Innovation Solution
An automated monitoring agent is used to track coding time and edits across different lexical scopes during the code authoring process, allowing for a more refined analysis on scopes with higher time or edit counts and a coarser analysis on less complex scopes, thereby specializing the static analysis procedure.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a granular analysis model is built to achieve precision, then accuracy is improved, but computational cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different levels of analysis granularity to different lexical scopes based on their coding characteristics. High-time scopes receive refined analysis while low-time scopes receive coarser analysis, making the analysis model locally adaptive rather than uniformly granular throughout the entire program.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent divides the program into lexical scopes and further segments them based on coding time metrics. This segmentation allows the analysis system to process different portions of code with appropriate detail levels, avoiding unnecessary computational expense on low-risk scopes while maintaining high accuracy on high-risk scopes.
2Productivity
If existing specialization techniques are applied to improve scalability, then analysis speed improves, but implementation complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically monitors coding time during the authoring process and uses this data to self-determine which scopes require refined analysis. This self-service approach eliminates the need for manual configuration or complex external analysis to identify specialization opportunities, reducing implementation complexity while maintaining scalability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent collects coding time metrics during the code authoring process itself, before the static analysis begins. This preliminary data collection enables the analysis system to be pre-configured with scope priorities, avoiding the need for complex runtime decisions or post-hoc analysis during the actual static analysis phase.
Data Source
AI summary
Providing specialization for a static program analysis procedure by executing an automated agent to monitor a code authoring process for a program under examination that includes a plurality of respective lexical scopes. The agent monitors a corresponding amount of coding time, or a corresponding number of edits, for each of the plurality of respective lexical scopes. A mapping associates each of the plurality of respective lexical scopes with a first quantitative measure of the corresponding amount of time, or a second quantitative measure of the corresponding number of edits, that were used to code each of the plurality of respective lexical scopes. The static analysis procedure is specialized by applying a more refined, detailed, precise, or granular analysis to a first lexical scope that is mapped to a greater amount of time or a greater number of edits than a second lexical scope.