Deep learning to translate between programming languages

Migrating a codebase from an archaic programming language such as COBOL to a modern alternative like Java or C is a difficult, resource-intensive task that requires expertise in both the source and target languages. COBOL, for example, is still widely used today in mainframe systems around the world, so companies, governments, and others often must choose whether to manually translate their code bases or commit to maintaining code written in a language that dates back to the 1950s. We've developed TransCoder, an entirely self-supervised neural transcompiler system that can make code migration far easier and more efficient. Our method is the first AI system able to translate code from one programming language to another without requiring parallel data for training. We've demonstrated that TransCoder can successfully translate functions between C, Java, and Python 3. TransCoder outperforms open source and commercial rule-based translation programs.