RE: Aspect Oriented Programming in context of lightweight languages.

["Anton van Straaten" <address@hidden>]

Steve Dekorte wrote:
> Does anyone else feel that aspects are a design pattern being marketed
> as a new paradigm? Why has it gotten so much more attention than (IMO)
> more important developments like prototypes? Is it a case of folks
> saying "I don't get it, so it must be really clever"? :-)

I imagine a big reason is that aspects can be quite a useful tool within
Java, so it has direct applicability to real-world projects in a way that
many other "competing" ideas don't.

Taken outside the context of a specific language, aspects may be a kind of
design pattern which could presumably be implemented by all sorts of
alternative means.  In Java specifically, there are things you can do with
an aspect tool that would require a lot of error-prone repetitive coding
otherwise, or would require the use of a competing tool.  Standard Java has
no preprocessor or macro facility, for example.

If it weren't for this particular application - e.g. if Java had a powerful
preprocessor - I suspect aspects might not be enjoying as warm a reception,
if only because it would be easier to resist them by saying "but I can do
that with...".  Aspects would then have to be sold on the basis that they
provide a more disciplined and coherent way to make transformations across a
code base - not necessarily a bad feature technically, but one that might
not generate quite as much interest.

Anton