Implementing Coordinated Error Recovery for Distributed Object-Oriented Systems with AspectJ

Fernando Castor Filho (State University of Campinas, Brazil)

Cecília Mary F. Rubira

Abstract: Exception handling is a very popular technique for incorporating fault tolerance into software systems. However, its use for structuring concurrent, distributed systems is hindered by the fact that the exception handling models of many mainstream object-oriented programming languages are sequential. In this paper we present an aspect-based framework for incorporating concurrent exception handling in Java programs. The framework has been implemented in AspectJ, a general purpose aspect-oriented extension to Java. Our main contribution is to show that AspectJ is useful for implementing the concerns related to concurrent exception handling and to provide a useful tool to developers of distributed, concurrent fault-tolerant applications.

Keywords: aspect-oriented programming, coordinated atomic actions, distributed programming, exception handling, separation of concerns

Categories: D.2, D.3, D.3.3