Aspect] is a simple and practical aspect-oriented extension to Java With just a few new constructs, AspectJ provides support for modular implementation of a range of crosscutting concerns. In AspectJ's dynamic join point model, join points are well-defined points in the execution of the program; pointcuts are collections of join points; advice are special method-like constructs that can be attached to pointcuts; and aspects are modular units of crosscutting implementation, comprising pointcuts, advice, and ordinary Java member declarations. AspectJ code is compiled into standard Java bytecode. Simple extensions to existing Java development environments make it possible to browse the crosscutting structure of aspects in the same kind of way as one browses the inheritance structure of classes. Several examples show that AspectJ is powerful, and that programs written using it are easy to understand.

An overview of AspectJ

[서평]「The Unified Modeling Language User Guide」

Feature modeling is an important approach to capture the commonalities and variabilities in system families and product lines. Cardinality-based feature modeling integrates a number of existing extensions of the original feature-modeling notation from Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis. Staged configuration is a process that allows the incremental configuration of cardinality-based feature models. It can be achieved by performing a step-wise specialization of the feature model. In this article, we argue that cardinality-based feature models can be interpreted as a special class of context-free grammars. We make this precise by specifying a translation from a feature model into a context-free grammar. Consequently, we provide a semantic interpretation for cardinality-based feature models by assigning an appropriate semantics to the language recognized by the corresponding grammar. Finally, we give an account on how feature model specialization can be formalized as transformations on the grammar equivalent of feature models. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Formalizing cardinality‐based feature models and their specialization

Although a feature model can represent commonalities and variabilities in a very concise taxonomic form, features in a feature model are merely symbols. Mapping features to other models, such as behavioral or data specifications, gives them semantics. In this paper, we propose a general template-based approach for mapping feature models to concise representations of variability in different kinds of other models. We show how the approach can be applied to UML 2.0 activity and class models and describe a prototype implementation.

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Mapping features to models: a template approach based on superimposed variants

Building software product lines (SPLs) with features is a challenging task. Many SPL implementations support features with coarse granularity - e.g., the ability to add and wrap entire methods. However, fine-grained extensions, like adding a statement in the middle of a method, either require intricate workarounds or obfuscate the base code with annotations. Though many SPLs can and have been implemented with the coarse granularity of existing approaches, fine-grained extensions are essential when extracting features from legacy applications. Furthermore, also some existing SPLs could benefit from fine-grained extensions to reduce code replication or improve readability. In this paper, we analyze the effects of feature granularity in SPLs and present a tool, called Colored IDE (CIDE), that allows features to implement coarse-grained and fine-grained extensions in a concise way. In two case studies, we show how CIDE simplifies SPL development compared to traditional approaches.

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Granularity in software product lines

Step-wise refinement is a powerful paradigm for developing a complex program from a simple program by adding features incrementally. We present the AHEAD (algebraic hierarchical equations for application design) model that shows how step-wise refinement scales to synthesize multiple programs and multiple noncode representations. AHEAD shows that software can have an elegant, hierarchical mathematical structure that is expressible as nested sets of equations. We review a tool set that supports AHEAD. As a demonstration of its viability, we have bootstrapped AHEAD tools from equational specifications, refining Java and nonJava artifacts automatically; a task that was accomplished only by ad hoc means previously.

Scaling step-wise refinement

Step-wise refinement is a powerful paradigm for developing a complex program from a simple program by adding features incrementally. We present the AHEAD (Algebraic Hierarchical Equations for Application Design) model that shows how step-wise refinement scales to synthesize multiple programs and multiple non-code representations. AHEAD shows that software can have an elegant, hierarchical mathematical structure that is expressible as nested sets of equations. We review a tool set that supports AHEAD. As a demonstration of its viability, we have bootstrapped AHEAD tools solely from equational specifications, generating Java and non-Java artifacts automatically, a task that was accomplished only by ad hoc means previously.

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To identify the emergent trends in software-intensive and distributed and decentralized computer systems and their impact on the Information Society in the next 10--15 years, the European Commission has established two Coordinated Actions: Initially the project `Beyond the Horizon' and then, starting in 2006, the project `InterLink'. This state-of-the-art survey presents the results of three workshops of the InterLink working group on software-intensive systems and novel computing paradigms. The objective was to imagine the landscape in which next generations of software-intensive systems will operate and the challenges they present to computing, software engineering, cognition and intelligence. The volume starts with an overview of the current state of the art and the research missions in engineering software-intensive systems. The remainder of the book consists of 15 invited papers of the working group participants and is structured in three major parts: ensemble engineering, theory and formal methods, and novel computing paradigms. These papers cover a broad spectrum of relevant topics ranging from methods, languages and tools for ensemble engineering, socio-technical and cyber-physical systems, ensembles in urban environments, formal methods and mathematical foundations for ensembles, orchestration languages to disruptive paradigms such as molecular and chemical computing.

Software-Intensive Systems and New Computing Paradigms

Software-intensive systems become more and more important in our everyday lives. But their increasing complexity makes it difficult to develop and maintain them. This chapter gives an overview of the state of the art of building software-intensive systems and outlines research challenges that have been identified by the InterLink working group "software-intensive systems and new computing paradigms".

Engineering of Software-Intensive Systems: State of the Art and Research Challenges

Software development is difficult, even if we control most of the operational parameters and if the software is designed to run on a single machine. But in the future we will face an even more challenging task: engineering ensembles consisting of thousands, or even millions, of nodes, all operating in parallel, with open boundaries, possibly unreliable components and network links, and governed by multiple entities. To develop reliable and trustworthy software for these kinds of systems we need to go far beyond the current state of the art and address fundamental problems in software development. We present some challenges and promising avenues for research about software-engineering for ensembles.

Axel Rauschmayer

Papers

Scaling step-wise refinement

Scaling step-wise refinement

Software-Intensive Systems and New Computing Paradigms

Engineering of Software-Intensive Systems: State of the Art and Research Challenges

Software Engineering for Ensembles