A review on aspect oriented implementation of software product lines components

Aspect orientation is an emerging technique which provides a solution to the implementation of concerns that span more than one module, thus enhancing modularity. Modularity is directly related to reusability. The whole point of having a software product line is so that software assets can be reused to develop multiple individual products. This co-relation between aspect-oriented techniques and software product lines motivates the development of aspect-oriented product line components. Several researchers have presented their work on the development of core assets using aspect-oriented techniques. These studies used aspect-oriented techniques for an improved separation of a concern, the treatment of crosscutting concerns, the inclusion of optional/alternative features and for variability management. In this study, an attempt is made to review the research in this field, highlighting the application domains along with other pertinent results. Furthermore, the study also tries to highlight the opportunities and challenges for carrying out the aspect-oriented implementation of software product line components. © 2010 Asian Network for Scientific Information.