AspectEngine A Framework For Aspect Oriented Software Development

Abstract

For all but the most trivial software systems, conquering the engineering of the system requires dividing the system into chunks that can be (by and large) separately created and managed. The past few years has seen a rise in the object-oriented perspective on system modularization. Object-orientation is reaching its limits. Many things one cares about in creating a software system (concerns) are not neatly localized to the behavior of specific "things." Building diverse systems requires simultaneously manipulating many concerns. Examples of concerns range from non-functional notions such as security, reliability, and manageability to precise implementation techniques such as concurrency control, caching, and error recovery. Since conventional programming technologies are centered on producing a direct sequence of instructions, they require the programmer to remain cognizant of all such concerns throughout the programming process. The programmer must explicitly intermix the commands to achieve these concerns with the code for the primary application functionality. This produces tangled code, erroneous and difficult-to-maintain systems. New technologies are emerging to allow richer specifications of programs and better modularization of these specifications. Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) is a new paradigm and technology that allows solving complex problems in software that cannot be simply solved using object-oriented programming. This project, examines the AOP concept, and its enabling technologies, to offer a solution to reduce the above mentioned concerns. To accomplish such a colossal task, a carefully planned set of activities were carried out. This report details these activities, and the significant facts, uncovered during the course of the project.