Source Code Instrumentation and Quantification of Events (slides - PDF)

Presenter: Robert Filman, Computer Scientist, NASA Ames

Abstract: Aspect-Oriented Programming is making quantified programmatic assertions over programs that otherwise are not annotated to receive these assertions. Varieties of AOP systems are characterized by which quantified assertions they allow, what they permit in the actions of the assertions (including how the actions interact with the base code), and what mechanisms they use to achieve the overall effect. Here, we argue that all quantification is over dynamic events, and describe our preliminary work in developing a system that maps dynamic events to transformations over source code. We discuss possible applications of this system, particularly with respect to debugging concurrent systems.

Bio: Robert E. Filman is a Senior Scientist at the Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science at NASA Ames Research Center, working on frameworks for developing distributed applications. Prior to coming to NASA, Dr. Filman worked in the research groups of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space, Intellicorp and Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, and on the faculty of the Computer Science Department at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is Associate Editor-in-Chief (and Editor-in-Chief designate) of IEEE Internet Computing and is on the editorial boards of The Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution and The International Journal of Artificial Intelligence Tools. He has worked and published in the areas of software engineering, distributed computing, network security, programming languages, artificial intelligence, and human-machine interface. Dr. Filman received his B. S. (1974, Mathematics), M.S. (1974, Computer Science) and Ph. D. (1979, Computer Science) from Stanford University.