Organizers

Cristina Lopes, XEROX PARC
Gregor Kiczales, XEROX PARC
Bedir Tekinerdogan, University of Twente
Wolfgang de Meuter, Free University of Brussels

More about the organizers...

E-mail

aop-ecoop98@parc.xerox.com

Call for participation

Mechanisms for defining and composing abstractions are essential elements of programming languages. They allow programs to be composed up from smaller units, and they support design styles that proceed by decomposing a system into smaller and smaller sub-systems.

The abstraction mechanisms most current programming languages --- subroutines, procedures, functions, objects, classes, modules and APIs --- can all be thought of as fitting into a generalized procedure call model.  The design style they support is one of breaking a system down into parameterized components that can be called upon to perform a
function.

But many systems have properties that don't necessarily align with the system's functional components. Failure handling, persistence, communication, replication, coordination, memory management, real-time constraints, and many others, are aspects of a system's behavior that tend to cut-across groups of functional components.  While they can be thought about and analyzed relatively separately from the basic functionality, programming them using current component-oriented
languages tends to result in these aspects being spread throughout the code.  The source code becomes a tangled mess of instructions for different purposes.

This "tangling" phenomenon is at the heart of much needless complexity in existing software systems. It increases the dependencies between the functional components. It distracts from what the components are supposed to do. It introduces numerous opportunities for programming errors. It makes the functional components less reusable. In short, it
makes the source code difficult to develop, understand and evolve.

At ECOOP'97 there was an AOP workshop that joined a number of researchers interested in aspect-orientation. It was generally accepted that aspect-oriented programming is a means to reduce the problem of code tangling, therefore improving the quality of software. The main goal of last year's workshop was to identify the "good questions" for exploring the idea even further.

In this year's AOP workshop, we will discuss the questions that were raised then, the progress in some research topics that emerged, and any new topics that may be brought up by the participants. Some of those topics are: aspects in the software lifecycle, run-time and compile-time weaving, theoretical foundations for AOP, different combinations of aspects and components, aspects and other programming paradigms, general-purpose vs. domain- or application-specific aspect
languages, and measuring the benefits of aspects.

Participants will be asked to write position papers about any of these or other related topics. The workshop will be structured around presentations and extended discussions. Participants are encouraged to explore different visual approaches to presenting the different aspects in a system.
 
 

Topics of interest

Participants will be asked to write a short position paper. The workshop will be structured around presentations and extended discussions. The topics for discussion will include:
• How to identify aspects?
• Aspect description languages.
• Orthogonality of aspects.
• Role of formal methods.
• Role of reflection.
• Translation techniques.

Attendance to the workshop is limited to facilitate lively discussions and the exchange of ideas. Prospective participants are solicited to submit a position paper in Postscript, PDF or plain ASCII format, by e-mail to aop-ecoop98@parc.xerox.com, no later than May 22, 1998. All submissions must include the full contact information of at least one author.

Two kinds of position papers will be accepted:
 

• Long papers: 4-6 page position papers or experience reports.   Typically, these will be submitted by prospective participants who  would like to present their work in the workshop.
 
• Short papers: 1-3 page position statements. Typically, these will   be submitted by prospective participants who would like to attend the workshop but have no particular interest in presenting their work.
All submissions, long and short, will be reviewed in order to guarantee that the position papers/statements are appropriate for the workshop. Accepted participants will be notified by June 12 1997.

Pointers of Interest

ECOOP '98: General Home Page

Aspect-Oriented Programming Home page
                           Ecoop '97, first AOP workshop
TRESE home page

Reuse Contracts