A while back (3 months ago?) I received contact from Peter Hale regarding a few things that related to some work that Kurt, Russ, and myself had been developing, and how they related to his PhD work in regards to User Driven Programming. I turned him on to the AspectXML project as something that might be of particular interest.
It seems he likes what he sees :D
Peter Hale PhD Research - User Driven Programming
Aspect Oriented Programming
AspectXML - This research is especially useful where software functions can’t be neatly attached to particilar objects or nodes in a hierarchy. These are known as cross-cutting concerns as they may affect several nodes.
These are useful links to an renowned researcher and writer on XML, XSLT, XUL, SVG, Java, and on the general direction of software and web research.
Kurt Cagle - Kurt Cagle - Web site
Kurt Cagle - Kurt Cagle - Article - Thoughts on Complexity
Russ Miles - O’Reilly Blog - AspectXML, AspectJ, Java.
Russ Miles - SOA Ranch - Service-oriented architecture.
Russ Miles - UML Ranch - Unified Modeling Language.
The AspectXML site is being developed by this team also including M. David Peterson, and Russel Miles
Explanation
AspectXML - Article - http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2005/09/part_3_assets_atom_feeds_and_a.html - [Part 3] Assets, Atom Feeds, and AspectXML - The Triple Threat of Web Development? - O’Reilly XML.com - M. David Peterson.
Community site
AspectXML - http://www.aspectxml.org/ - Community Open Source Project.
Thanks Peter! Let us know how we can help :)
M. David Peterson
This is of interest to me because my research is into End User Programming. Its also of interest to others I'm working with on proposals for projects involving the use of Semantic Web applications for End User Programming. I'm looking at Semantic Web techniques for enabling this, and Aspect Oriented Programming should be one of the techniques used by developers to create systems that allow users to program using a very high level interface. Where object and tree based representations can't represent everything a user requires Aspect Oriented Programming can assist. Also I like the idea of XML being used as a programming language, and not just for representing information. This implies it could be a step in the translation process from a model defined diagrammatically and using natural language to computer software. :)
I agree with your reasonings and purpose 100% Peter. I'm excited to see this project (AspectXML) has taken your interest. Among other things, this will provide you the opportunity to explain what areas you feel we need to work on to better enable your suggested use case(s), as well as for us an opportunity to bounce various ideas off of the "PhD Researchers Wall" so to speak, to see what, if anything, strikes you as appealing.
As I mentioned at the close of my post, please let us know how we can be of help. :)
Thanks!
Thank You
I will get back to you on more specific requests, I need to read a bit more deeply into you and the teams' AspectXML and other Aspect Oriented Programming work. Then I can write about it as part of my thesis and I'll be able to identify exactly where your research fits in.
I'm developing software visually using an Ontology that is then translated to a Decision Support Tool for providing calculation and choices. The next step is to translate the results for visualisation on the web, I use mainly XML, SVG, and Java for this. At each stage I want to ensure that everything can be translated, but so far I've only dealt with hierarchies and relationships but I want to be able to translate requirements that are outside this scope.
I'll speak to colleagues, and keep track of your latest developments and hopefully come up with a specific example of this soon. :)
Fantastic! Looking forward to your next point of contact :)
BTW... A FANTASTIC AOSD/AOP resource is located a http://aosd.net/
I followed up on that link AOSD.net and found found plenty of papers and conference information. I'll look out for any more when they're published after the next conference, especially if there are any on AspectXML or anything related.
Thank You
Yeah, thats a GREAT site that Russ turned me onto a while back. Glad you found so much useful info :)
I think it would be useful to provide an automated transformation from an AspectXML program to an AspectJ program and vice versa. The example could be very simple with a small write-up just to demonstrate the concept and advantages of making software development more language independant. It also would be a good way of explaining the structure of the program and how this is language independent.