Aspect-oriented development using protocol modeling

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the modeling of crosscutting behavioral abstractions. We argue that behavioral aspects can be seen as a particular kind of more general behavioral abstraction called a "mixin". Mixins support a compositional style of modeling, whereby a complete class definition is constructed by composing one or more mixins each of which represents a partial definition of the class. If used as the replacement for inheritance, mixins can provide an expressive power equivalent to multiple inheritance. In this paper we use a modeling semantics called Protocol Modeling to illustrate how mixins can be used to represent behavioral aspects. We use the Crisis Management System case to illustrate the Protocol Modeling approach, and describe how the model can be executed to give early validation of its behavior. We discuss the extent to which the Protocol Modeling approach is scalable to large problems, is suitable for evolutionary development and supports correctness analysis and testing. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.