Cracking the 500-language problem

Constructing analysis and modification tools for software assets is laborious because you first need to implement the underlying parser for the software´s specific programming language. These implementations are generally not in the public domain. So, parser development for any of the 500+ languages in use today implies a major up-front investment. The authors propose a solution that will work for virtually all languages: the rapid development of renovation parsers by stealing the grammars. They also share lessons learned