Function Patterns

AspectJ and other aspect-oriented languages provide basic function-related cross-cutting features, which enable a programmer to track, for example, the calls made to all or some specific functions matching the specified pattern. Other places of interest in a function source code are the entry and exit points of the body.

Figure 3 shows an example of the function-related join points in the source code. The whole body of the function main matches an $execution$ pattern, whereas every call to a function is captured by the $call$ pattern.

Figure 3: Function Join Points

AspectMatlab also supports both $call$ and $execution$ patterns, not only for functions but to cross-cut scripts as well. Because there is no specific main entry point to MATLAB programs, so we introduce a $mainexecution$ pattern. This pattern will match the execution of the main function or script, (i.e., the first function or script executed). The function patterns given in Listing 3 show example uses, where pCallFoo pattern matches all calls made to the function or script named foo and pExecutionMain pattern captures the entry and exit points of the main function.