An Evaluation of AOP for Java-based Real-time Systems Development
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Abstract:
Advances in programming language have improved the software developer?s ability to achieve
separation of concerns (SOC). Although object-oriented (OO) technology offers greater ability
than previous language paradigms to achieve this goal, it still has difficulty localising concerns
that do not fit naturally into a single program module. Aspect-oriented programming (AOP)
introduces a new style of decomposition for capturing such crosscutting behaviour that further
enhances a software developer?s ability to achieve SOC.
Although studies have shown that AOP is beneficial to many OO systems, it has yet to be
proven for real-time systems development, where systems are bound by strict temporal
constraints. Languages such as Real-time Java have encouraged the use of OO languages in
real-time system development, but may result in codebases that significantly differ from
conventional software systems due to the necessity of additional real-time constructs.
The goal of the dissertation was to evaluate the use of AOP in the development of Java-based
real-time systems. The main focus was on the seven enhanced areas introduced by the Realtime
Specification of Java. The Sentient Traffic Simulator application developed by the
Distributed Systems Group in Trinity College, was extended to satisfy specific temporal
constraints, with a subsequent re-implementation using AOP enhancements. The overall
development process involved an initial analysis of areas in the original system that required
real-time behaviour and the later identification of crosscutting real-time functionality that exists
in the codebase.
Evaluation of the effectiveness of AOP for Real-time Java was performed to illustrate the
impact of this paradigm on understandability, maintainability, reusability, and testability
attributes.
Based on the results gathered, it has been concluded that AOP does provide useful
enhancements but the improvements shown are significantly less impressive than previous
studies carried out for AOP and OOP. The overall effectiveness of AOP is highly application
specific and dependant on the amount of aspectual behaviour exhibited in the codebase of the
for Java-based real-time system.
Author: Tsang, Shiu Lun
Advisor:
Clarke, SiobhanCollections
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