Applications of artificial neural networks to reverse software engineering

In this paper a system has been described that has been used to explore the application of ANN based technology to reverse software engineering (RSE). The demonstrator system has been trained to identify complex sort algorithms within large `real world´ COBOL source listings. The ease with which the system can be extended, by training further neural networks to identify new algorithmic structures, offers the possibility of rapidly extending and customising the functionality of such a system. This research also suggests the potential for constructing a larger system that utilises recursively applied neural networks to automatically generate abstract descriptions of a source program