De-constructing and re-constructing aspect-orientation

Abstract

Through its decade-and-a-half long evolution, the aspect-oriented software community has occasionally struggled with its identity -- revisiting the question "What kinds of technologies make up aspect-oriented software and who should be interested in it?" We attempt to de-construct "aspect-oriented" into several issues making up its foundation, believing that the community is inclusive and that work exploring or exploiting any of these concepts fits within the community. Although their historical setting contributes somewhat to the understanding of why different authors have emphasized one or more of these issues, we analyze them from an intrinsic point-of-view, to highlight broader or deeper issues that may lie behind the constructs currently made available, in the hope that "aspect-oriented" software technologies can be extended to provide an even stronger basis for software than they do today.