Enforcing behavioral constraints in evolving aspect-oriented programs

Abstract

Reasoning, specification, and verification of Aspect-Oriented (AO) programs presents unique challenges especially as such programs evolve over time. Components, base-code and aspects alike, may be easily added, removed, interchanged, or presently unavailable at unpredictable frequencies. Consequently, modular reasoning of such programs is highly attractive as it enables tractable evolution, otherwise necessitating that the entire program be reexamined each time a component is changed. It is well known, however, that modular reasoning about AO programs is difficult. In this paper, we present our ongoing work in constructing a relyguarantee style reasoning system for the Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) paradigm, adopting a trace-based approach to deal with the plug-n-play nature inherent to these programs, thus easing AOP evolution.