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First-Class Compositions

Defining and Composing Object and Aspect Compositions with First-Class Operators

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Book cover Transactions on Aspect-Oriented Software Development IX

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((TAOSD,volume 7271))

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Abstract

A considerable amount of research, especially within the OO and AOSD communities, has focused on understanding the potential and limitations of various composition techniques. This has led to a large number of proposals for alternative composition techniques, including many variations of message dispatch, inheritance, and aspect mechanisms. This paper makes the case that there is no single perfect composition technique that suits every situation, since different techniques incur different tradeoffs. The proper composition technique to use depends on the particular design problem and its requirements (such as the required adaptability, reusability, understandability and robustness). However, most programming languages limit the available composition techniques to a very few. To address this, we propose a novel composition model, called Co-op. The model provides dedicated abstractions that can be used to express a wide variety of object composition techniques (“composition operators”). Examples include various forms of inheritance, delegation, and aspects. The proposed model unifies objects (with encapsulated state and a message interface) and composition operators; composition operators are specified as first-class citizens. Multiple composition operators can be combined within the same application, and composition operators can even be used to compose new composition operators from existing ones. This opens new possibilities for developing domain-specific composition operators, taxonomies of composition operators, and for reuse and refinement of composition operators. To validate and experiment with the proposed model, we have designed and implemented a simple language, Co-op/I, that we also use in this paper to show concrete examples.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Lodewijk Bergmans, Wilke Havinga & Mehmet Aksit

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  1. Lodewijk Bergmans
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  2. Wilke Havinga
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  3. Mehmet Aksit
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Central Florida, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 439C Harris Center, Building 116, 4000 Central Florida Boulevard,, 32816-2362,, Orlando,, FL, USA

    Gary T. Leavens

  2. Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, 113-8656, Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Japan

    Shigeru Chiba

  3. Oracle Labs, Oracle Deutschland B.V. & Co. KG, Schiffbauergasse 14, 14467, Potsdam, Germany

    Michael Haupt

  4. University of Marburg, Biegenstr. 10, 35037, Marburg, Germany

    Klaus Ostermann

  5. University of British Columbia, 2366 Main Mall, V6K 389, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Eric Wohlstadter

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Bergmans, L., Havinga, W., Aksit, M. (2012). First-Class Compositions. In: Leavens, G.T., Chiba, S., Haupt, M., Ostermann, K., Wohlstadter, E. (eds) Transactions on Aspect-Oriented Software Development IX. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7271. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35551-6_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-35551-6_6

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