Chapter5.AOP: A Historical Perspective (What s in a Name?)

Chapter 5. AOP: A Historical Perspective (What's in a Name?)

CRISTINA VIDEIRA LOPES

The term "aspect-oriented programming" (AOP) came into existence sometime between November of 1995 and May of 1996 at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). AOP was based on an extensive body of prior work, but somehow the existing terminology wasn't appropriate for describing what we were doing. The new programming technology we were beginning to devise was going to change the world!

In this chapter, I will give my own account of how AOPthe ideas, the technologies, and the namecame to be. But, history is just marginally interesting if one doesn't make the effort to learn from it and apply that knowledge to things that are still to come. AOP didn't quite "change the world," but no doubt it had an impact in research communities and in programming at large. There are valuable lessons to be learned from the emergence of AOP, and an analysis of those is the ultimate goal of this chapter.