DESIGN BY CONTRACT WITH ASPECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING

An aspect oriented system for implementing the Design by Contract software development methodology is provided in which preconditions and postconditions defining the contract need not be coded into the program modules being developed. Rather, an aspect is provided which encapsulates these preconditions and postconditions. This behavior may easily and transparently be forced onto the resource by compiling the object class for the program module along with the contract aspect. When the software program in which the program modules is used is no longer needed, the preconditions and postconditions are removed simply by recompiling the resource object classes without the aspect.