def METHOD_NAME(data):
    # Normalize negation (convert " * -1" to the negation operator)
    data = _norm_negation.sub(template.negation, data)
    # Normalize double negation (convert "-(-x)" to x)
    data = _norm_double_negation.sub('', data)
    # Remove multiplication by 1
    data = _norm_timesone.sub('', data)
    # Normalize consecutive whitespace to a single space
    data = _norm_whitespace.sub(' ', data)
    # preface all comments with a single tab character
    data = _norm_comment.sub('\t#', data)
    # Normalize floating point integers to integers
    data = _norm_integers.sub('', data)
    # return the sequence of lines
    return data.splitlines()