A core calculus of composite layers

Abstract

Composite layers in context-oriented programming (COP) are the abstraction that localizes conditions about when the specified layer becomes active. A composite layer changes the behavior of the system by implicit layer activation triggered by explicit activation of contexts. Existing studies on formalization of COP languages do not cover such an activation mechanism. This paper formalizes composite layers to clarify the operational semantics of implicit layer activation. Based on this formalization, we prove that the translation of composite layers into the existing COP language is sound, which ensures the correctness of the existing implementation of composite layers.