Automated methods for constructing language specific systems for reverse engineering source code into abstract syntax trees with attributes in a form that can more easily be displayed, understood and/or modified

摘要

Disclosed herein is a method, which can be automated on an information processing device with memory, that dramatically reduces the effort required to create systems for reverse engineering source code in a plurality of structured languages into Abstract Syntax Trees (ASTs), which represent all of the information in said source code, and to automatically analyze, display and/or manipulate those ASTs. This method makes it possible to automatically construct systems for reverse engineering source code in any of a plurality of languages and for analyzing, manipulating and/or converting such code. This method also makes it possible to display and edit information as text in compressed ASTs in human understandable, pre-specified form.