As a computer programmer, there is core information you should have at your fingertips about any programming language. That knowledge helps you navigate its program designs easily, with a better understanding of its working principles. Since aspect-oriented programming is still a new baby in the programming world — and is built on a new abstraction called aspects — here are the basic things you should know about programming the aspect-oriented way.
- The key focus of AOSD: concerns, understanding, maintainability
- Parallel development through use-case modules
- Extension concerns — advice layered on a base
- AOSD works alongside other approaches like OOP
- Concerns are not a problem — they are the requirements
- Separation: every element does one thing
- Join points and point cuts — where aspects attach
01Key Focus Of AOSD
Across the entire lifecycle of the aspect-oriented software development process, the programming approach keeps two major focuses. The first is the set of concerns about the system itself; the second is the pair of factors of adequate understanding of the system and its maintainability. The latter is established through designs, models, and the implementation of components.
02Parallel Development
Aspect-oriented programming provides a parallel development environment. It can completely transform use cases into use-case modules and slices. Since use-case modules are independent of one another, work on each module can proceed simultaneously, as separate projects — a genuine boost to how teams organise development.
03Separating Extension Concerns
A base concern can have another concern defined on top of it — an extension concern. Extension concerns represent additional features or services. Throughout its development lifecycle, AOSD can carry extension concerns, which in aspect-oriented programming are called advice. Through the composition mechanism, advice can be mixed freely with other concerns.
04Used Alongside Other Approaches
Aspect-oriented software development is used together with other conventional approaches, such as object-oriented programming. It serves to improve software development by implementing function encapsulation that cuts across — and exists alongside — other functionality and concerns. Aspects specify where they are to be added to a system, including the code that implements the cross-cutting concerns themselves.
05Concerns Should Not Be A Programming Problem
As a programmer, you should know that concerns are part of the program and should never be treated as an issue in aspect-oriented software development. They are the aspects of a system that reflect the system requirements and the stakeholders' priorities in the program.
The key concerns — the primary purpose of the program — describe the functional concerns, while QoS and non-functional requirements are reflected by the secondary concerns.Functional vs. secondary concerns
06Separation
The standard of separation of concerns states that programs are to be organised so that every program element does just one thing, alone. This implies, too, that each element in the program should be easy to understand without needing to reference other elements. It is also worth knowing that program abstractions such as procedures, subroutines, and objects all support the separation of these concerns.
07Join Points And Point Cuts
In aspect-oriented software development, the join point is the location in a system where you may include an aspect. A typical join point model includes:
- The call events
- The execution events
- Initialization events
- Data events
- Exception events
A point cut, similarly, defines where specifically an aspect will be included in a system. It identifies the particular events with which advice is to be associated. For instance, the contexts in which advice can be included in a program are:
- Before a specific method's execution
- After the exceptional or normal return from a particular method
- When a field is modified in an object