Aspects of memory management

Date

2005

Authors

Gibbs, C
Coady, Y

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

IEEE

Abstract

With the constant demand for system change and upgrades comes the need to simplify and ensure accuracy in this process. As structural boundaries decay, non-local modifications compound the costs of system evolution and adaptation. Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) aims to improve structural boundaries for concerns that are inherently crosscutting - no single hierarchical decomposition can localize both the crosscutting concern and the concerns it crosscuts. This paper provides a case study of three crosscutting concerns within a rapidly evolving memory management subsystem of a JVM. The study shows how aspects can be structured as a natural locus of control, and how this new modularity provides leverage for system evolution and adaptation. Demonstrated benefits include enhanced extensibility for a dynamic analysis tool, centralized configurability for a subsystem-wide synchronization mechanism, and increased verifiability for a domain-specific design pattern.

Description

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Keywords

Citation

Gibbs, C.; Coady, Y., System Sciences, 2005. HICSS '05. Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on