Conclusions and Future Work - Autonomics Development: A Domain-Specific Aspect Language Approach - page 118

7.4 Conclusion
This topic has presented four contributions to improving the development of dis-
tributed applications.
Firstly, we have introduced the concept of a Distribution Definition Language ,
a high-level domain-specific aspect language that generalises the distribution con-
cern by describing the classes and methods of an existing application to be made
remote, the distributed system to use to make them remote, and the recovery
mechanism to use in the event of a remote error. Secondly, we provided the ability
for multiple protocols to be applied to the same code base, thereby generalising the
distribution concern. Thirdly, we allowed the application of distribution awareness
to applications in such a way that the application is oblivious to the distribution
implementation and recovery mechanism yet is able to fully participate in both.
Finally, we provided a simplified approach to the development of distributed sys-
tems that allows an application to be either distributed or non-distributed, thereby
improving software reuse and simplifying testability of distributed applications, as
applications may be functionally tested before having the distribution and recovery
concerns applied.
In addition, these contributions, by alleviating some of the complexity in-
volved in distributed systems development and by allowing autonomic features,
such as recovery, to be transparently added to existing applications, provides a
contribution to autonomic computing. We propose that the concept of a domain-
specific aspect language be used as a general method to apply autonomic frame-
works, thereby greatly easing the programmers burden and ensuring correct use
of the framework, which reduces the effort required to develop autonomic applica-
tions.
As with many projects of this kind, additional work is needed to improve and
refine the concept further. Some of this work is currently underway and we look
forward to addressing the other outstanding issues.