Using Design Patterns as Indicators of Refactoring Opportunities (to Aspects)

In this position paper, we argue that traditional object-oriented design patterns can be regarded as workarounds for limitations in current programming languages, including crosscutting concerns. Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) is able to modularise crosscutting concerns and overcomes many of the limitations. To illustrate, we mention a few examples. We describe several situations in which patterns are used to cope with the presence of crosscutting concerns. Such solutions are inferior to solutions make possible by AOP and on this basis we hypothesize that patterns can provide clues to improve existing systems by refactoring to aspects. We briefly outline an approach to derive a deeper understanding of how patterns can be used as indicators of refactoring opportunities.