IWFST'2005, Shanghai

Testing Aspect-Oriented Programs: Challenges and

Opportunities

Jianjun ZhaoDepartment of Computer Science

and EngineeringShanghai Jiao Tong University

zhao-jj@cs.sjtu.edu.cn

IWFST'2005, Shanghai

Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD)

AOSD is a new paradigm that supports separation of crosscutting concerns in software design and implementation Explicit mechanisms for capturing the structure of cro

sscutting concerns in software systems exception handling, synchronization, performance optimizatio

n, and resource sharing Aspect-oriented languages and systems

AspectJ, hyper/J. composition filters, and adaptive method

IWFST'2005, Shanghai

Why Testing Aspect-Oriented Programs?

The current research so far in AOSD is focused on problem analysis, software design, and implementation issues

Even though the important of software testing is known, it has received little attention in the aspect-oriented paradigm

Aspect-orientation does not provide correctness by itself

Aspect-oriented design and AOP language by no means shields against programmer’s mistakes or a lack of understanding of the specification

Software testing remains an important task even in AOSD

IWFST'2005, Shanghai

Open Questions on Testing Aspect-Oriented Programs

How do we adequately test aspect-oriented programs?

How do we define testing criterions for aspect-oriented programs?

Are there ways to test aspects as units? How do we test aspects that interact with a base

program? How do we test aspects that mutually interfere? How do we test aspects whose effects must span

more than one concern? ...