Speaker
Description
R provides a plethora of packages and features that support the dynamic and interactive exploration of data.
Yet, there is a lack of static analysis tools which support program comprehension, reproducibility, and software engineering practices.
With flowR we provide not just a static analysis framework, but also an easily accessible extension for common IDEs such as Visual Studio Code, RStudio, and Positron (links point to the respective instances).
In this talk, we present a brief summary of the extensions and their features, focusing on how they can support R developers in their work.
FlowR provides an overview of a given data analysis, an integrated linter for reproducibility smells, and hover-over tooltips providing shape information for involved data frames.
Moreover flowR also includes a program slicer, which either 1) reduces a program to only the parts relevant to a certain variable of interest like a visualization or a statistical test in the form of a backward slice, or 2) shows the impact of, for example, a given import by reducing the program to just the parts relying on that import.
In the real-world, we observe huge reductions of the program size by slicing, often by more than 90%, which can be a huge help for program comprehension and reproducibility.
We also hope to get feedback from the R community on how these features can be further improved and integrated into their workflows.
flowR has been featured prior at ASE '24 and OOPSLA '25.
If you used AI tools or services to support the preparation of this submission, please state the name and reason for using each of them.
No AI tools/services were used.
Additional Material or Paper
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3691620.3695359
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3763087
| Keywords: Please list up to 5 keywords to help us find the right session for your contribution. | program analysis, program slicing, program comprehension, reproducibility, software engineering |
|---|---|
| Virtual Option | This submission is for onsite presentation only |
| Material License | CC-BY-SA 4.0 |
| Video Recording | Video sharing is fine |
| The author(s) agree(s) to take responsibility and be accountable for the contents of the submission and is/are authorized to present it. | Confirm |
| Interested in serving as reviewer? | florian.sihler@uni-ulm.de |