Program translation through code distillation

A computer-implemented method for source code translation, comprising:

• receiving an original source code snippet in a first high-level programming language;
• parsing the original source code snippet into a syntax tree having a plurality of nodes;
• converting the syntax tree into a distilled tree by pruning nodes of the syntax tree that represent modifiers, return types and comments and replacing common operators, data types and built-in functions with a unified code form;
• transforming the distilled tree into distilled code, wherein the distilled code comprises logic flow and data flow of the original source code snippet in a language-independent format;
• and
• generating a semantically-equivalent source code program for the original source code snippet in a second high-level programming language from a decompiler given the distilled code, wherein the first high-level programming language and the second high-level programming language differ.

A computer-implemented method for source code translation, comprising:

• distilling a source code snippet into distilled source code, wherein the distilled source code comprises logic flow and data flow of the source code snippet in language-independent code constructs, wherein the source code snippet comprises source code of a first programming language;
• masking the distilled source code;
• concatenating the masked distilled code with the distilled code representation;
• and
• pre-training the decompiler to learn to translate the distilled code into source code of a second programming language given the concatenated masked distilled code with the distilled code representation, wherein the first programming language and the second programming language differ.