About the Project

AspeCt-oriented C is a research project conducted by the Middleware Systems Research Group at the University of Toronto. ACC enables aspect-oriented software development with the C programming language. AspeCt-oriented C consists of a compiler that translates code written in AspeCt-oriented C into ANSI-C code. This code can be compiled by any ANSI-C compliant compiler, like for example gcc.

AspeCt-oriented C is a proposed language design and compiler. ACC serves as one viable AspectC language design. For other designs see the Related Projects section in this Web.

AspeCt-oriented C ships with a set of Compiler Tools that help to use ACC as part of larger development projects, either to integrate aspects and ACC compiler into larger builds or to organize new software development builds with aspects in mind.

The short-term objective of the AspeCt-oriented C project is to build a robust compiler to support aspect-oriented programming with C. ACC achieves this by building on proven aspect-oriented language designs for other languages, most notably the AspectJ language for aspect-oriented programming with Java.

Long-term research objectives of the AspeCt-oriented C project include the investigation of

1. concern separation support and aspect-oriented language features tailored to the C language and the imperative style of programming;
2. aspect-orientation in the context of software written in C, especially systems software and middleware systems targeting embedded platforms (e.g., cell phones, PDAs, chip cards, sensor boards, telecommunications equipment, etc.);
3. techniques and tools for the development of highly customizable and easily configurable systems and middleware systems software product lines catering to the extensive world of C-based legacy systems.

Please browse the current and planned AspeCt-oriented C language Features, AspeCt-oriented C code snippets, language specification and other publications, our tutorial and a project status page. As well we encourage you to download the code, and contact us with any questions you may have.

About the AspeCt-oriented C Compiler

AspeCt-oriented C compiler has been built and is available for download. The compilation process is illustrated in the following figure.

Gallery

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