A Definition, Overview and Taxonomy of Generic Aspect Languages

ABSTRACT. Aspect-orientation promises better modularity than pure object-oriented decomposition. A typical benefit of increased modularity is ease of maintenance, evolution and reuse. However, it has been noted by various researchers that many of the first generation aspect languages do not provide the degree of reusability initially hoped for. In this paper, we argue that the problem of insufficient reusability is due to a lack of support for aspect genericity. We analyze various problems of traditional aspect languages and define aspect genericity to be the ability to concisely express aspect effects that vary depending on the context of a join point known at weave-time, without falling back to runtime reflection. We identify the ability to parameterize aspect effects with meta-variables ranging over base language elements as the technical prerequisite for achieving genericity and describe the design space for generic aspect languages in terms of five basic questions that a language ...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2006
• Where: LOBJET
• Authors: Günter Kniesel, Tobias Rho
• Keywords: Aspect Languages, Generic Aspect, Genericity, LOBJET 2006