Redundancy-free Residual Dispatch: Using Ordered Binary Decision Diagrams for Efficient Dispatch

Abstract

State-of-the-art implementations of common aspect-oriented languages weave residual dispatching logic for advice whose applicability cannot be determined at compile-time. But being derived from the residue's formula representation the woven code often implements an evaluation strategy which mandates redundant evaluations of atomic pointcuts. In order to improve upon the average-case run-time cost, this paper presents an alternative representation which enables efficient residual dispatch, namely ordered binary decision diagrams. In particular, this representation facilitates the complete elimination of redundant evaluations across all pointcuts sharing a join point shadow.