Reverse engineering from assembler to formal specifications via program transformations

The FermaT transformation system, based on research carried out over the last sixteen years at Durham University, De Montfort University and Software, Migrations Ltd., is an industrial-strength formal transformation engine with many applications in program comprehension and language migration. This paper is a case study which uses automated plus manually-directed transformations and abstractions to convert an IBM 370 assembler code program into a very high-level abstract specification.