Description Rodrigo Gonçalves 2005-05-03 05:01:45 EDT

Hello,
 
After a small discussion with Wes Isberg and Eric Bodden about dummy 
variables, I learned that Wes’s proposal on the use of “this” designator in 
type patterns had not been yet submitted as a Request For Enhancement (RFE). 
 
I think the afforementioned use of the “this” designator would bring 
advantages and open new possibilites for AspectJ. 
 
By using “this” on type patterns we could refer to the implicit instance and 
have pointcuts that capture join points solely on the implicit instance. This 
might cover some of the possible uses of an extension of the pointcut 
specification syntax to include the specification of dummy variables.
 
Here’s a little example:

import static java.lang.System.out;

public class Test {
    private int i = 0;

    public void f() {
        this.i = 1;
        /* or this.i = 1; */
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Test t = new Test();
        t.f();
        t.i = 2;
    }

    static private aspect CaptureThis {
        before() : set(* this.*) {
            out.println("Found this.set!");
        }

        before() : set(* *.*) {
            out.println("Found set!");
        }
    }
}
Regards, 
 
Rodrigo Gonçalves