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abc : An Extensible AspectJ Compiler

  • Conference paper
Transactions on Aspect-Oriented Software Development I

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((TAOSD,volume 3880))

Abstract

Research in the design of aspect-oriented programming languages requires a workbench that facilitates easy experimentation with new language features and implementation techniques. In particular, new features for AspectJ have been proposed that require extensions in many dimensions: syntax, type checking and code generation, as well as data flow and control flow analyses. The AspectBench Compiler (abc) is an implementation of such a workbench. The base version of abc implements the full AspectJ language. Its front end is built using the Polyglot framework, as a modular extension of the Java language. The use of Polyglot gives flexibility of syntax and type checking. The back end is built using the Soot framework, to give modular code generation and analyses. In this paper, we outline the design of abc, focusing mostly on how the design supports extensibility. We then provide a general overview of how to use abc to implement an extension. We illustrate the extension mechanisms of abc through a number of small, but nontrivial, examples. We then proceed to contrast the design goals of abc with those of the original AspectJ compiler, and how these different goals have led to different design decisions. Finally, we review a few examples of projects by others that extend abc in interesting ways.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programming Tools Group, Oxford University, United Kingdom

    Pavel Avgustinov, Sascha Kuzins, Oege de Moor, Damien Sereni, Ganesh Sittampalam & Julian Tibble

  2. BRICS, University of Aarhus, Denmark

    Aske Simon Christensen

  3. Sable Research Group, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

    Laurie Hendren, Jennifer Lhoták & Ondřej Lhoták

Authors
  1. Pavel Avgustinov
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  2. Aske Simon Christensen
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  3. Laurie Hendren
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  4. Sascha Kuzins
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  5. Jennifer Lhoták
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  6. Ondřej Lhoták
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  7. Oege de Moor
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  8. Damien Sereni
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  9. Ganesh Sittampalam
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  10. Julian Tibble
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Computing, InfoLab 21, South Drive, Lancaster University, LA1 4WA, Lancaster, UK

    Awais Rashid

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

    Mehmet Aksit

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© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Avgustinov, P. et al. (2006). abc : An Extensible AspectJ Compiler. In: Rashid, A., Aksit, M. (eds) Transactions on Aspect-Oriented Software Development I. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3880. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11687061_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11687061_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-32972-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32974-9

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