Attribute-oriented programming explained

Attribute-oriented programming (@OP) is a technique for embedding metadata, namely attributes, within program code.

Attribute-oriented programming in various languages

Java

With the inclusion of Metadata Facility for Java (JSR-175)^[1] into the J2SE 5.0 release it is possible to utilize attribute-oriented programming right out of the box.XDoclet library makes it possible to use attribute-oriented programming approach in earlier versions of Java.

C#

The C# language has supported attributes from its very first release. These attributes was used to give run-time information and are not used by a preprocessor. Currently with source generators, you can use attributes to drive generation of additional code at compile-time.

UML

The Unified Modeling Language (UML) supports a kind of attribute called stereotypes.

Hack

The Hack programming language supports attributes. Attributes can be attached to various program entities, and information about those attributes can be retrieved at run-time via reflection.

Tools

• Annotation Processing Tool (apt)
• Spoon, an Annotation-Driven Java Program Transformer
• XDoclet, a Javadoc-Driven Program Generator

References

• Web site: Attribute-Oriented Programming . An Introduction to Attribute-Oriented Programming . July 22, 2005 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20050526230023/http://dssg.cs.umb.edu/resources/attribute-oriented-programming.html . May 26, 2005 .
• Web site: Wada . Hiroshi . Suzuki, Junichi . 2005 . Modeling Turnpike Frontend System: a Model-Driven Development Framework Leveraging UML Metamodeling and Attribute-Oriented Programming . In Proc. of the 8th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MoDELS/UML 2005) . 2006-03-21 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303170619/http://www.cs.umb.edu/~jxs/pub/models05.pdf . 2016-03-03 .
• Web site: Rouvoy . Romain . Merle, Philippe . 2006 . Leveraging Component-Oriented Programming with Attribute-Oriented Programming . In Proc. of the 11th ECOOP International Workshop on Component-Oriented Programming (WCOP 2006) . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20061223004531/http://research.microsoft.com/~cszypers/events/WCOP2006/rouvoy-wcop-06.pdf . 2006-12-23.

External links

• Don Schwarz. Peeking Inside the Box: Attribute-Oriented Programming with Java5
• Sun JSR 175
• Attributes and Reflection - sample chapter from Programming C# book
• Modeling Turnpike Project
• Fraclet : An annotation-based programming model for the Fractal component model
• Attribute Enabled Software Development book

Notes and References

1. Web site: The Java Community Process(SM) Program - communityprocess - final .