The authors describe a novel approach to software re-engineering that combines several technologies: object-oriented databases integrated with parser, for capturing the software to be re-engineered; specification and pattern languages for querying and analyzing a database of software; and transformation rules for automatically generating re-engineered code. The authors then describe REFINE, an environment for program representation, analysis, and transformation that provides the tools needed to implement the automation of software maintenance and re-engineering. The transformational approach is illustrated with examples taken from actual experience in re-engineering software in C, JCL and NATURAL. It is concluded that the ability to support automation in modifying large software systems by using rule-based program transformation is a key innovation of the present approach that distinguishes it from tools that focus only on automation of program analysis.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">></ETX>
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Burson et al. (2002) studied this question.