Demeter/Java and AP Studio Release

This is the official announcement of Demeter/Java, a high-level interface to the programming language Java which allows you to write Java programs adaptively. The compiler is accompanied by a graphical user interface, called AP Studio, which allows you to develop key components of adaptive programs graphically. See the CHANGES file for current version number.

Demeter/Java (1996-*) is the successor of Demeter/C++ (1989-1996) and incorporates several improvements to the Adaptive Programming technology. Adaptive Programming is the special case of Aspect-Oriented Programming (http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/lieber/connection-to-aop.html), where one of the building blocks is expressible in terms of graphs and where the other building blocks refer to the graphs using traversal strategies. A traversal strategy is a partial specification of a class diagram pointing out a few cornerstone classes and relationships. Traversal strategies may be viewed as regular expressions specifying a traversal through a graph.

Demeter/Java has the following features:

Supports the building blocks (aspects): Object Structure, Object Description, Synchronization with more to follow.
Has extensive support for the ubiquitous Visitor design pattern.
Allows you to follow the Law of Demeter in an ideal way. http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/lieber/LoD.html
Generates a visitor library from a class dictionary for example for printing, comparing and copying objects.
Provides a generic aspect weaver for Java.
Uses JavaCC to create parsers.
Is all written in Java as a Demeter/Java program (implementation in its own technology).
Contains a reusable traversal graph package tg which implements the core technology behind adaptive programming. Package tg is reusable to add adaptiveness to other tools. The AP Library documents how to use the core technology behind adaptive programming.

To get an impression of how Demeter/Java will evolve, read our OOPSLA '98 paper "Adaptive Plug-and-Play Components (APPCs) for Evolutionary Software Development" by Mira Mezini and Karl Lieberherr.

StructureBuilder from Tendril Software is a commercial tool which implements some of the Demeter ideas. For further information on Structure Builder: Tendril Software, Inc.

Acknowledgements:
The implementors of the Java tools are (building on the work of the 
Demeter/C++ team: Xiao/Huersch/Silva-Lepe):

Demeter/Java 
Doug Orleans: 	principal architect and implementor
Johan Ovlinger: Traversals as objects, remote invocation aspect, 
  		Laboratory Guide
Josh Marshall:	Generic Aspect Weaver, synchronization aspect
Crista Lopes:	Provided design for synchronization and remote invocation aspects

AP Studio:
Kedar Patankar:	principal architect and implementor GUI 
Binoy Samuel:	principal architect and implementor AP Studio front-end

Faculty:
Karl Lieberherr (Principal Investigator)
Mira Mezini
Jens Palsberg
Boaz Patt-Shamir
Mitchell Wand

Supported by DARPA and Rome Laboratory under agreement F30602-96-0239 (Evolution of Software Via Adaptive Programming) and a grant from Xerox PARC (Aspect-Oriented Programming) and the National Science Foundation.

This page links you to a new world of more flexible software. If you like what you found here, we appreciate your feedback and we would like to hear about your use of the technology. Please tell your software friends about this page.

Search Engine. Use if to find information with keywords (CCS site).

Karl J. Lieberherr

College of Computer Science, Northeastern University

Cullinane Hall, Boston, MA 02115

Internet: demeter@ccs.neu.edu

Fax: (617) 373 5121