LitterBox: A Linter for Scratch Programs

TL;DR

LitterBox is an open-source static analysis tool designed to detect bugs and code smells in Scratch programs, providing explanations and improving code quality for learners and researchers.

Contribution

Introduces LitterBox, a novel linter for Scratch that identifies bugs and code smells with explanations, supporting educational and research purposes.

Findings

Detects common bugs and code smells in Scratch programs

Provides detailed explanations and locations for issues

Offers an extensible framework for static analysis

Abstract

Creating programs with block-based programming languages like Scratch is easy and fun. Block-based programs can nevertheless contain bugs, in particular when learners have misconceptions about programming. Even when they do not, Scratch code is often of low quality and contains code smells, further inhibiting understanding, reuse, and fun. To address this problem, in this paper we introduce LitterBox, a linter for Scratch programs. Given a program or its public project ID, LitterBox checks the program against patterns of known bugs and code smells. For each issue identified, LitterBox provides not only the location in the code, but also a helpful explanation of the underlying reason and possible misconceptions. Learners can access LitterBox through an easy to use web interface with visual information about the errors in the block-code, while for researchers LitterBox provides a general, open source, and extensible framework for static analysis of Scratch programs.