Abstracting object interactions using composition filters

Abstract

It is generally claimed that object-based models are very suitable for building distributed system architectures since object interactions follow the clientserver model. To cope with the complexity of today's distributed systems, however, we think that high-level linguistic mechanisms are needed to effectively structure, abstract and reuse object interactions. For example, the conventional object-oriented model does not provide high-level language mechanisms to model layered system architectures. Moreover, we consider the message passing model of the conventional object-oriented model as being too low-level because it can only specify object interactions that involve two partner objects at a time and its semantics cannot be extended easily. This paper introduces Abstract Communication Types (ACTs), which are objects that abstract interactions among objects. ACTs make it easier to model layered communication architectures, to enforce the invariant behavior among objects, to reduce the complexity of programs by hiding the interaction details in separate modules and to improve reusability through the application of objectoriented principles to ACT classes. We illustrate the concept of ACTs using the composition filters model.

Semantics-directed implementation of method-call interception

“…So dually, in a disjunction, we always prefer the greatest class if there is one. 3 This completes the definition of the static and dynamic semantics of MCI.…”

“…Aspect-oriented programming It is worth mentioning that MCI instantiates the notion of aspect-oriented programming (AOP; [31,3,18]). For completeness' sake, this link can be substantiated on the basis of a correspondence between the MCI and AOP terminology as follows:…”

Modeling Software Processes and Artifacts

“…However, there are several obstacles in using traditional object oriented techniques [2]. Composition filters provide composable solutions [1], notably on concurrency and synchronisation.…”

A Filter Object Framework for MICO

“…In such cases, message control cannot be abstracted out without breaking its transparency. In applications like these, interceptors [8] or filtering models models such as Composition Filters [1], Filter Objects [6] and Encapsulators [9] achieve separation between message processing and message control. In the filter object model, messages sent to the destination objects can be intercepted by first class filter objects.…”