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Program Transformations: Some Lessons from the 1980s

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Automatic Program Development

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Summary

The 1980s were a fertile time in the development of program transformation systems. Much of the experience we gained during those years, what we learned about designing, implementing, and using transformation systems, is written down in obscure places that today's researchers probably do not have access to, or probably will not find if they do. Moreover, many practical tidbits of information were understood, but never written down. I do not really think the community is aware of some of the problems they are revisiting today and solutions they are reinventing (some that do not work!). Bob Paige was a major contributor to the body of transformation research; he was also very concerned that his many results not be lost to successive generations of researchers. Late in his life he produced a compendium of his results and he encouraged his colleagues to do likewise. This is my effort towards that goal.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Teknowledge Corp., 4640 Admiralty Way #1010, Marina del Rey, CA, 90292, USA

    David S. Wile

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  1. David S. Wile
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. BRICS, University of Aarhus, Denmark

    Olivier Danvy

  2. DIKU, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

    Fritz Henglein

  3. Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA

    Harry Mairson

  4. DISP, University of Roma ‘Tor Vergata’, Italy

    Alberto Pettorossi

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Wile, D.S. (2008). Program Transformations: Some Lessons from the 1980s. In: Danvy, O., Henglein, F., Mairson, H., Pettorossi, A. (eds) Automatic Program Development. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6585-9_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6585-9_18

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-6584-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-6585-9

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