Context-oriented programming for mobile devices: JCop on Android

Abstract

The behavior of mobile applications is particularly affected by their execution context, such as location and state a the mobile device. Among other approaches, context-oriented programming can help to achieve context-dependent behavior without sacrificing modularity or adhering to a certain framework or library by enabling fine-grained adaptation of default behavior per control-flow. However, context information relevant for mobile applications is mostly defined by external events and sensor data rather than by code and control flow. To accommodate this, the JCop language provides a more declarative approach by pointcut-like adaptation rules. In this paper, we explain how we applied JCop to the development of Android applications for which we extended the language semantics for static contexts and modified the compiler. Additionally, we outline the successful implementation of a simple, proof-of-concept mobile application using our approach and report on promising early evaluation results.