A 3-Layer Typical Architecture

  

Figure 1: A three-layer architecture for aspect-oriented environments.

A typical architecture could be drawn as shown in figure 1. This simplified diagram contains some components (boxes) and some core logics (rounded boxes) that can use (bold arrows) the components' APIs. It is meant to run an initial AO program on the top of the figure. Note that this architecture does not intend to be a reference architecture but only one possible architecture. Indeed, several possibilities exist for composing the different core components of an AO architecture.

One can split this architecture in three layers:

• a low-level layer (1) that provides basic components to implement the weaving (the main process of AOP) on the target platform,
• a high-level layer (2) that provides basic components for AOP, in its original meaning, plus the logic that implements the AO semantics (would depend on the target platform),
• a development-level layer (3) that includes the UI in its largest sense (can be supported by a language, can be a modelling tool) and other tools that are needed to help the developer trusting the AO programs (such as type-checking, visualization tools, debuggers, and so on).