Programming Research Group  -  University of Amsterdam  -  TR P9905


            Towards Automated Modification of Legacy Assets

                             Alex Sellink
                             Chris Verhoef


In this  paper we  argue that  there is a  necessity  for automating
modifications  to legacy  assets.  We propose a five layered process
for the  introduction and  employment of  tool support  that enables
automated  modification to  entire  legacy systems.  Furthermore, we
elaborately  discuss each layer  on a conceptual level,  and we make
appropriate  references  to sources  where  technical  contributions
supporting  that  particular  layer  can  be  found.  We  sketch the
perspective  that  more  and  more  people  working  in the software
engineering area will be contributing to working on existing systems
and/or tools to support such work.