On the modularization and reuse of exception handling with aspects

• Published in: Software, practice & experience practice & experience, 2009-12, Vol.39 (17), p.1377-1417
• Main Authors: Castor, Fernando, Cacho, Nélio, Figueiredo, Eduardo, Garcia, Alessandro, Rubira, Cecília M. F., de Amorim, Jefferson Silva, da Silva, Hítalo Oliveira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: aspect-oriented programming; AspectJ; Assessments; C (programming language); Computer programs; Exception handling; metrics; modularity; Modularization; Object oriented; Object-oriented programming; reuse; Strategy
• ISSN: 0038-0644; 1097-024X; 1097-024X
• DOI: 10.1002/spe.939

This paper presents an in‐depth study of the adequacy of the AspectJ language for modularizing and reusing exception‐handling code. The study consisted of refactoring existing applications so that the code responsible for implementing error‐handling strategies was moved to newly created exception handler aspects. We have performed quantitative assessments of five systems—four object‐oriented and one aspect‐oriented—based on four key quality attributes, namely separation of concerns, coupling, cohesion, and conciseness. Our investigation also included a multi‐perspective analysis of the refactored systems, including (i) the extent to which error‐handling aspects can be reused, (ii) the beneficial and harmful aspectization scenarios for exception handling, and (iii) the scalability of AOP to support the modularization of exception handling in the presence of other aspects. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.