Taming Aspects

Abstract. Aspect-oriented programming languages support the modular definition of crosscutting abstractions. In most languages, this is achieved through pointcuts, which provide a means for quantifying over execution events in order to implicitly trigger advice. Notably, an advice is more than a simple event handler because of its ability to override the underlying computation. Unrestricted quantification and arbitrary advice computation are powerful but dangerous.

In this talk we look at a number of approaches to tame aspects in order to retain their benefits without sacrificing important software engineering properties, like modular reasoning, separate development, type soundness, and controlled interferences. Specifically, we report on our work in scoping, interfaces, types, and effects.