Self-composable Programming

Increasing scale and complexity of modern software, we have found programming problem with techniques like Aspect-oriented Programming(AOP) while constructing features of the software. We capture its key property as behavioral similarity, a set of tangled and scattered low-level behavior in similar patterns of invocation across the high-level behaviors features in software. In this paper, we present Self-composable Programming(Self), a way of programming for constructing reusable software patterns. Self treated pattern as a behavior and introduces a concept of abstract and specific behavior by bringing hierarchical relationship. Self introduces two attribute Self-composability to refining abstract behavior into specific behavior and Multi-level inheritance to localising cross-cutting concerns by parental abstract behavior. Self provides these attribute in a direct semantical way which is a contrast to previous research of inheritance in AOP. We design Self by following well establishes idioms of Object-oriented Programming, Abstraction Layer and UNIX Philosophy. We extract a concept from the philosophy and applies to the concrete language-specific environment to build an implementation and API specification. We evaluated Self in the context of a web application by measuring and estimating required SLOC for implementing a new feature, and we experienced positive result of applying Self over AOP to increase the modularity of software. Self also increases overall organisational and architectural abstraction in programmer’s point of view by enabling power to define an operational dimension of software. Self provides both practical and theoretical improvements of modular software engineering. It is practical programming technique to resolves scattering and tangling of similar patterns in software, while also addresses the programming benefits from the right way of modeling a behavior in the real world. We think accurately modeling and simplifying control of behavior is key to open new abstraction in software just like Object-oriented Programming did for things in 50 years ago. ACM CCS 2012 Software and its engineering→ Abstraction, modeling and modularity; Language features; Very high level languages; Design patterns; Applied computing → Enterprise architectures;