[aosd-discuss] "AOP considered harmful"

[Eric Tanter]

>> as one of the authors of the referenced paper, just a short note: This
>> paper was written for a panel discussion, and indeed intended to be
>> provocative.
>>
>> However, I think that AOP as we see it now can result in reduced 
>> program
>> understandability, if used in the wrong way. Additionally AOP imho
>> strongly depends on tool support (thanks for ajdt, great tool in that
>> context!).
>
> I disagree with the above. AOP makes great tool support like ajdt 
> *possible*
> rather than "strongly depending on them"! Pointcuts make the 
> crosscutting
> structure, which implicitly exists anyway in an OO equivalent, 
> explicit and
> hence displayable by a "stupid" tool. By this, it actually improves 
> overall
> program understanding rather than reducing it, IMHO.

But what Max said -which I believe is true- is that without tool 
support, you cannot determine what is going to happen at execution just 
by looking at your code unless you're good enough to 'expand' 
predicates in your mind at any time. Type polymorphism in OOP is 
arguably much easier to grasp in one's head that pointcut shadows.
So yes, good tools support is even more necessary for AOP I guess. And 
still, another point that is made in the paper is that even with tool 
support, if your pointcuts have dynamic parts, you can only know what 
aspects 'potentially' apply.

-- Eric