Simple Crosscutting Concerns Are Not So Simple

Analysing Variability in Large-Scale Idioms-Based Implementations

Report (2007)
Department
Software Technology (EEMCS) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2007 The authors. Software Engineering Research Group, Department of Software Technology, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Delft University of Technology.
More Info
expand_more

Published Date

12-03-2007

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Source:

Technical Report Series TUD-SERG-2007-001

Faculty

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Department

Software Technology

Abstract

This paper describes a method for studying idioms-based implementations of crosscutting concerns, and our experiences with it in the context of a real-world, large-scale embedded software system. In particular, we analyse a seemingly simple concern, tracing, and show that it exhibits significant variability, despite the use of a prescribed idiom. We discuss the consequences of this variability in terms of how aspect-oriented software development techniques could help prevent it, how it paralyses (automated) migration efforts, and which aspect language features are required in order to obtain precise and concise aspects. Additionally, we elaborate on the representativeness of our results and on the usefulness of our proposed method. Preprint accepted for publication in: Sixth International Conference on Aspect-Oriented Software Development, Vancouver, Canada, March 12-16, 2007

Files

TUD-SERG-2007-001.pdf
(pdf | 0.324 Mb)
Unknown license