μABC: A minimal aspect calculus

Abstract

Aspect-oriented programming is emerging as a powerful tool for system design and development. In this paper, we study aspects as primitive computational entities on par with objects, functions and horn-clauses. To this end, we introduce μABC, a name-based calculus, that incorporates aspects as primitive. In contrast to earlier work on aspects in the context of object-oriented and functional programming, the only computational entities in μABC are aspects. We establish a compositional translations into μABC from a functional language with aspects and higher-order functions. Further, we delineate the features required to support an aspect-oriented style by presenting a translation of μABC into an extended π-calculus. © Springer-Verlag 2004.