XVCL-An Annotative Approach to Feature-Oriented Programming

Feature-oriented programming (FOP) has been widely described as an effective way to realize Product Line (PL) and to derive PL members. A case study on Berkeley DB revealed some difficulties in applying FOP for PL using compositional approach AspectJ. Here we study the features of Berkeley DB, which were obtained as a result of Feature-oriented Refactoring (FOR). We enumerate ways in which these features interact with the base program at different granularities and multiplicity, and also with each other. We discuss a solution based on an annotative approach using XVCL, and evaluate both approaches(AspectJ and XVCL) with respect to simplicity, extensibility, modularity, and maintenance. Our study shows that each approach has its own merits and drawbacks, depending on the type of feature interaction and mechanisms it provides for feature composition.