Automated pattern-based pointcut generation

Abstract. One of the main problems in Aspect-Oriented Software Development is the so-called fragile pointcut problem. Uncovering and specifying a good robust pointcut is not an easy task. In this paper we propose to use Inductive Logic Programming, and more specifically the FOIL algorithm, to automatically identify intensional (or “pattern-based”) pointcuts. We present the tool chain we implemented to induce a pointcut given a set of identified joinpoints. Using several realistic medium-scale experiments, we show that our approach is able to automatically induce robust pointcuts for a set of joinpoints.