ECOOP / Tutorial 11

Aspect-Oriented and Meta-Programming with AspectJ

Topic	AOP, Meta-programming, AspectJ, Java technologies
Goal	You will leave this tutorial with an understanding of AOP and AspectJ, AspectJ as a meta-programming language, its use in practical cases, and its use as a tool.
Style	presentation + discussion + demonstration + exercise

Abstract

Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) is an elegant, powerful, and important new paradigm and technology that enhances traditional OOP. Most people who attend this seminar leave saying something like “Wow, that’s very cool!” AOP is an intriguing approach to development, falling broadly within meta-programming and generative programming techniques. And with AspectJ, it has matured into a practical tool ready for production Java™ technology systems. AspectJ is a free, seamless AOP extension to Java. It can be used to cleanly modularize crosscutting concerns such as exception handling, logging, persistence, and event notification. You will leave this tutorial with an understanding of AOP and AspectJ, AspectJ as a meta-programming language, and its use as a tool. It includes many examples for Java applications, from simple to complex, including logging, event notification, mock objects for testing, and persistence. You will do hands-on experiments for concrete AOP learning, and knowledge of using AspectJ in the popular Java IDE, Eclipse. Participants wishing to do the short hands-on exercises (we only have a ½ day for the entire tutorial) should bring a laptop installed with AspectJ, Eclipse, and the Eclipse AspectJ plug-in. Topics include

Hello World with AspectJ
Background
Motivation
Introductory Case Study
Generalization and Polymorphism with Aspects
AspectJ as a Meta-Programming Language
More Examples: Mock Objects, Design and Style Enforcers
Larger Case Studies: Bound Properties & Persistence

Presenter Profile

Craig Larman

Craig Larman is an internationally recognized leader in object-oriented and advanced software technologies, and the author of “Applying UML and Patterns” and “Java 2 Performance and Idiom Guide.” He serves as Chief Scientist for Valtech, and holds an M.Sc. in computer science, specializing in AI programming techniques, and object-oriented case-based reasoning architectures. Specifically with respect to AOP and AspectJ, Craig has been exploring its application within a consulting organization, and regularly presents AOP and AspectJ seminars (including ECOOP 2002). He has been involved in meta-programming since the early 80s, originally in Lisp, Prolog, and Smalltalk.

Details

Presenter(s)	Craig Larman, www.craiglarman.com, Valtech
Date Duration	Tuesday, PM, July 22 half day
Level	Novice-Intermediate in AspectJ
Targeted Audience	Researchers, developers and managers of Java technology projects, interested in AOP and AspectJ.