An Architectural-level Exception-handling System For Component-based Applications

Component-based software systems built out of reusable software components are being used in a wide range of applications which have high dependability requirements. In order to accomplish the required levels of dependability, it is necessary to incorporate into these complex systems means for to cope with software faults. Exception handling is a well-known technique for adding forward error recovery to software systems supported by various mainstream programming languages. However, exception handling for component-based applications at the architectural level introduces new challenges which are not addressed by traditional exception handling systems, such as unavailability of source code, specially when off-the-shelf components are employed. In this paper, we present an exception handling system which adds fault tolerance to component-based systems at the architectural level. 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Implementing Coordinated Error Recovery for Distributed Object-Oriented Systems with AspectJ

Exception handling is a very popular technique for incorporating fault tolerance into software systems. However, its use for structuring concurrent, distributed systems is hindered by the fact that the exception handling models of many mainstream object-oriented programming languages are sequential. In this paper we present an aspect-based framework for incorporating concurrent exception handling in Java programs. The framework has been implemented in AspectJ, a general purpose aspect-oriented extension to Java. Our main contribution is to show that AspectJ is useful for implementing the concerns related to concurrent exception handling and to provide a useful tool to developers of distributed, concurrent fault-tolerant applications

Mining the Usage of Reactive Programming APIs: A Study on GitHub and Stack Overflow

Conventionally, callbacks and inversion of control have been the main tools to structure event-driven applications. Sadly, those patterns constitute a well-known source of design problems. The Reactive Programming (RP) paradigm has arisen as an approach to mitigate these problems. Yet, little evidence has been provided regarding the advantages of RP, and concerns have also arisen about the API usability of RP libraries given their disparate number of operators. In this work, we conduct a study on GitHub (GH) and Stack Overflow (SO) and explore three Reactive Extensions (Rx) libraries (RxJava, RxJS, and RxSwift) with the most GH projects to understand how much the vast Rx operators are being used. Also, we examine Rx SO posts to complement the results from the GH exploration by understanding the problems faced by RP developers and how they relate with the operators' frequencies found in open source projects. Results reveal that, in spite of its API size, the great majority of the Rx operators are actually being used (95.2%), with only a few, mostly related to RxJava, not being utilized. Also, we unveil 23 topics from SO with more posts concerning the Stream Abstraction (36.4%). Posts related to Dependency Management, Introductory Questions, and iOS Development figure as relevant topics to the community. The findings herein present can not only stimulate advancements in the field by understanding the usage of RP API and the main problems faced by developers, but also help newcomers in identifying the most important operators and the areas that are the most likely to be relevant for a RP application

Implementing Coordinated Exception Handling for Distributed Object-Oriented Systems with AspectJ

Abstract. Exception handling is a very popular technique for incorporating fault tolerance into software systems. However, its use for structuring concurrent, distributed systems is hindered by the fact that the exception handling models of many mainstream object-oriented programming languages are sequential. In this paper we present an aspect-based framework for incorporating concurrent exception handling in Java programs. The framework has been implemented in AspectJ, a general purpose aspect-oriented extension to Java. Our main contribution is to show that AspectJ is useful for implementing the concerns related to concurrent exception handling and to provide a useful tool to developers of distributed, concurrent fault-tolerant applications. 1