A monadic interpretation of execution levels and exceptions for AOP

Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) started fifteen years ago with the remark that modularization of so-called crosscutting functionalities is a fundamental problem for the engineering of large-scale applications. Originating at Xerox PARC, this observation has sparked the development of a new style of programming features that is gradually gaining traction. However, theoretical foundations of AOP have been much less studied than its applicability. This paper proposes to put a bridge between AOP and the notion of 2category to enhance the conceptual understanding of AOP. Starting from the connection between the λ-calculus and the theory of categories, we provide an internal language for 2-categories and show how it can be used to define the first categorical semantics for a realistic functional AOP language, called MinAML. We then take advantage of this new categorical framework to introduce the notion of computational 2-monads for AOP. We illustrate their conceptual power by defini...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2012
• Where: AOSD
• Authors: Nicolas Tabareau
• Keywords: Algebraic Semantics, AOSD 2012, Aspect Oriented Programming, Categorical Semantics, Software Engineering