Towards detecting and solving aspect conflicts and interferences using unit tests

Abstract

Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) is a programming paradigm that aims at solving the problem of crosscutting concerns being normally scattered throughout several units of an application. Although an important step forward in the search for modularity, by breaking the notion of encapsulation introduced by Object Oriented Programming (OOP), AOP has proven to be prone to numerous problems caused by conflicts and interferences between aspects. This paper presents work that explores the proven unit testing techniques as a mean to help developers describe the behavior of their aspects and to advise them about possible conflicts and interferences.