A model-driven approach to enforce crosscutting assertion checking

ABSTRACT

Design by Contract provides an effective principle to enable the construction of robust software by describing properties of a module using logical assertions. This paper presents a model-driven approach for weaving assertion checking aspects into a large software system. The approach is based on a technique called two-level aspect weaving. At the top level, crosscutting assertions are weaved into a model by use of a model weaver. The second step of the weaving process occurs when the Model-Driven Program Transformation technique is applied to perform large-scale adaptation of the underlying source code from the contracts specified in the high-level models. The paper briefly presents a case study to illustrate the concept.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.2 Design Tools and Techniques

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.6 Programming Environments
          Subjects: Graphical environments

  F. Theory of Computation
  F.4 MATHEMATICAL LOGIC AND FORMAL LANGUAGES
      F.4.2 Grammars and Other Rewriting Systems

Keywords:
aspect-oriented programming, design by contract, model-driven software development, program transformation