Cona: Aspects for Contracts and Contracts for Aspects

Abstract

Design by Contract (DBC) and runtime enforcement of program assertions enables the construction of more robust software. It also enables the assignment of blame in error reporting. As of yet, no AOP implementation for the provision of DBC exists. We present an aspect-oriented DBC tool for Java named Cona. We also extend the use of DBC and assertions to AOP. Aspects are used in the implementation of contracts, and contracts are used for enforcing assertions on aspects.