Modeling Aspect Mechanisms: A Top-Down Approach

Abstract

A plethora of aspect mechanisms exist today. All of these diverse mechanisms integrate concerns into artifacts that exhibit crosscut- ting structure. What we lack and need is a characterization of the design space that these aspect mechanisms inhabit and a model de- scription of their weaving processes. A good design space rep- resentation provides a common framework for understanding and evaluating existing mechanisms. A well-understood model of the weaving process can guide the implementor of new aspect mecha- nisms. It can guide the designer when mechanisms implementing new kinds of weaving are needed. It can also help teach aspect- oriented programming (AOP). In this paper we present and evalu- ate such a model of the design space for aspect mechanisms and their weaving processes. We model weaving, at an abstract level, as a concern integration process. We derive a weaving process model (WPM) top-down, differentiating a reactive from a nonre- active process. The model provides an in-depth explanation of the key subprocesses used by existing aspect mechanisms.