Program transformation

Article summary

A program transformation is any operation that takes a computer program and generates another program. In many cases the transformed program is required to be semantically equivalent to the original, relative to a particular formal semantics and in fewer cases the transformations result in programs that semantically differ from the original in predictable ways. While the transformations can be performed manually, it is often more practical to use a program transformation system that applies specifications of the required transformations. Program transformations may be specified as automated procedures that modify compiler data structures (e.g. abstract syntax trees) representing the program text, or may be specified more conveniently using patterns or templates representing parameterized source code fragments. A practical requirement for source code transformation systems is that they be able to effectively process programs written in a programming language. This usually requires integration of a full front-end for the programming language of interest, including source code parsing, building internal program representations of code structures, the meaning of program symbols, useful static analyses, and regeneration of valid source code from transformed program representations.…

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