Building Customizable Middleware using Aspect-Oriented Programming - Master\u27s Thesis, May 2002

Abstract

In order to support a wide range of applications, Distributed Object Computing (DOC) middleware frameworks such as ACE and TAO have grown to include a vast number of features. For any one application, though, unused functionality either contributes to code bloat, degrades performance or both. When applied to embedded and realtime systems, these issues can preclude the use of middleware altogether. Currently, to address these concerns, middleware developers continually refactor code to relegate functionality to separate libraries. This process is tedious, time-consuming, and adds complexity for both users and developers. To address the difficulties of creating subsettable middleware, we have developed a novel method for constructing middleware using Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) and applied it to develop a realtime CORBA Event Channel called the Framework for Aspect Composition of an EvenT channel (FACET). FACET consists of a small, essential core that represents the basic structure and functionality of any event channel. By using aspects, additional features are woven not the core so that the resulting event channel supports all of the features needed by a given embedded application