AspectC++

AspectC++ is an aspect-oriented extension of C and C++ languages. It has a source-to-source compiler, which translates AspectC++ source code into compilable C++. The compiler is available under the GNU GPL, though some extensions specific to Microsoft Windows are only available through pure-systems GmbH.

AspectC++ Compiler
Developer(s)Olaf Spinczyk (project leader), Georg Blaschke, Christoph Borchert, Benjamin Kramer, Daniel Lohmann, Horst Schirmeier, Ute Spinczyk, Reinhard Tartler, Matthias Urban [1]
Initial releaseNovember 6, 2001 (2001-11-06) [2]
Stable release
2.2 / 10 March 2017 (2017-03-10)
Written inC++
Operating systemCross-platform
TypeSource-to-source Compiler
LicenseGPL 2+
Websitewww.aspectc.org

Aspect-oriented programming allows modularizing cross-cutting concerns in a single module, an aspect. Aspects can modify existing classes, but most commonly they provide 'advice' that runs before, after, or around existing functionality.

Example

All calls to a specific function can be traced using an aspect, rather than inserting 'cerr' or print statements in many places:

aspect Tracer
{ 
   advice call("% %Iter::Reset(...)") : before()
   {
      cerr << "about to call Iter::Reset for " << JoinPoint::signature() << endl;
   }
};

The Tracer aspect will print out a message before any call to %Iter::Reset. The %Iter syntax means that it will match all classes that end in Iter.

Each 'matched' location in the source code is called a join point—the advice is joined to (or advises) that code. AspectC++ provides a join point API to provide and access to information about the join point. For example, the function:

JoinPoint::signature()

returns the name of the function (that matched %Iter::Reset) that is about to be called.

The join point API also provides compile-time type information that can be used within an aspect to access the type or the value of the arguments and the return type and return value of a method or function.

References
  1. "AspectC++ Contact".
  2. "NetBeat Webhosting - www.netbeat.de".


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