The porting or translation of software applications from one programming language to another is a common requirement of organisations that utilise software, and the increasing number and diversity of programming languages makes this capability as relevant today as in previous decades.

Several approaches have been used to address this challenge, including machine learning and the manual definition of explicit translation rules. We define a novel approach using model-driven engineering (MDE) techniques: reverse-engineering source programs into specifications in the UML and OCL formalisms, and then forward-engineering the specifications to the required target language. This approach can be fully automated, and additionally has the advantage of extracting specifications of software from code. We provide an evaluation based on a comprehensive dataset of examples, including industrial cases, and compare our results to those of other approaches and tools.