Techniques for automatic program recognition, at the algorithmic level, could be of high interest for the area of Software Maintenance, in particular for knowledge based reengineering, because the selection of suitable restructuring strategies is mainly driven by algorithmic features of the code. In this paper an automated hierarchical concept parsing recognition technique, and a formalism for the specification of algorithmic concepts, is presented. Based on this technique, the design and development of ALCOR, a production rule based system for automatic recognition of algorithmic concepts within programs, aimed at support of knowledge based reengineering for high performance, is presented.