Semantics-based composition for textual requirements

Abstract

Most current aspect composition mechanisms rely on syntactic references to the base modules or wildcard mechanisms quantifying over such syntactic references in pointcut expressions. This leads to the well-known problem of pointcut fragility. Semantics-based composition mechanisms aim to alleviate such fragility by focusing on the meaning and intention of the composition, hence avoiding strong syntactic dependencies to the base modules. In this chapter we present one such mechanism-requirements description language (RDL)-for textual requirements. The RDL enriches the natural language textual requirements with semantic information. Composition specifications are written based on these semantics rather than requirements syntax, hence providing improved means for expressing the intentionality of the composition, in turn facilitating semantics-based reasoning about aspect influences and trade-offs.