Feature Visualiser: an Inspection Tool for Context-Oriented Programmers

Abstract

As part of our ongoing research on context-oriented software technology, we propose a feature-oriented programming approach to context-oriented programming. Behavioural variations are implemented as fine-grained features that can be installed and activated dynamically, upon changing contexts. Given the highly dynamic nature of such a programming approach, and to cope with the complexity of many behavioural variations, that can depend on many varying contexts, developers could benefit from visual inspection tools to analyse what contexts and features are currently active, in which order they have been activated, and what code they adapt. We present a prototype of such a visualisation tool, and discuss potential improvements to that tool.