Modular Compilation Strategies for Aspect-Oriented Constructs

By: Robert Dyer and Hridesh Rajan

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Abstract

In our previous work, we presented an aspect-oriented intermediate language, named Nu, to preserve design modularity in object code. Nu is based on two primitives: bind and remove. We showed that maintaining modularity in object code significantly improved the incremental compilation time of aspect-oriented programs. The key contribution of this work is a set of compilation strategies to Nu for a number of AspectJ constructs such as control flow (cflow and cflowbelow), instantiation (perthis, pertarget, percflow, percflowbelow) and dynamic checks (if, this, target, args), as well as composition operators (&& and ||). The motivation was to determine if these high-level language constructs need to be supported in the intermediate language. Our compilation strategies are modular and textually local. To compile a construct in a module, only the information about that module’s implementation and the specification of other modules referenced in that module are needed. The generated intermediate code for a construct in a source module is confined to a single module in the object code. We show that our compilation strategies improve incremental compilation time of aspect-oriented programs. We also analyze our intermediate language with respect to constructs that are not directly supported.

ACM Reference

Dyer, R. and Rajan, H. 2006. Modular compilation strategies for aspect-oriented constructs. Technical Report #06-30.

BibTeX Reference

@techreport{dyer2006modular,
  title = {Modular compilation strategies for aspect-oriented constructs},
  author = {Dyer, Robert and Rajan, Hridesh},
  year = {2006},
  month = {September},
  intitution = {Iowa State University, Dept. of Computer Science},
  number = {06-30},
  abstract = {
    In our previous work, we presented an aspect-oriented intermediate language,
    named Nu, to preserve design modularity in object code. Nu is based on two
    primitives: bind and remove. We showed that maintaining modularity in object
    code significantly improved the incremental compilation time of
    aspect-oriented programs. The key contribution of this work is a set of
    compilation strategies to Nu for a number of AspectJ constructs such as
    control flow (cflow and cflowbelow), instantiation (perthis, pertarget,
    percflow, percflowbelow) and dynamic checks (if, this, target, args), as well
    as composition operators (&& and ||). The motivation was to determine if these
    high-level language constructs need to be supported in the intermediate
    language. Our compilation strategies are modular and textually local. To
    compile a construct in a module, only the information about that module's
    implementation and the specification of other modules referenced in that
    module are needed. The generated intermediate code for a construct in a source
    module is confined to a single module in the object code. We show that our
    compilation strategies improve incremental compilation time of aspect-oriented
    programs. We also analyze our intermediate language with respect to constructs
    that are not directly supported.
  }
}