Source transformation in software engineering using the TXL transformation system

Many tasks in software engineering can be characterized as source to source transformations. Design recovery, software restructuring, forward engineering, language translation, platform migration and code reuse can all be understood as transformations from one source text to another. TXL, the Tree Transformation Language, is a programming language and rapid prototyping system specifically designed to support rulebased source to source transformation. Originally conceived as a tool for exploring programming language dialects, TXL has evolved into a general purpose source transformation system that has proven well suited to a wide range of software maintenance and reengineering tasks, including the design recovery, analysis and automated reprogramming of billions of lines of commercial Cobol, PL/I and RPG code for the Year 2000. In this paper we introduce the basic features of modern TXL and its use in a range of software engineering applications, with an emphasis on how each task can b...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2002
• Where: INFSOF
• Authors: James R. Cordy, Thomas R. Dean, Andrew J. Malton, Kevin A. Schneider
• Keywords: Design Recovery, INFSOF 2002, Source Transformation, Tree Transformation Language