[aspectj-users] AspectJ and memory management

[Rickard Öberg <rickard@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi!

I am investigating how it would be possible to implement memory 
management techniques for introductions in AspectJ.

Basically, if a class A has a stateful "perthis" introduction X, which 
adds an implementation of the interface Y to A, then I want to control 
how instances of X are managed. Specifically, an instantiation of A 
should not cause an instantiation of X. An invocation of Y on A must 
enable X to be instantiated and loaded with persistent state, and after 
the invocation it must be possible to GC X (compare this with, for 
example, JDO and EJB EntityBeans). This allows for the construction of a 
scalable domain model using introductions.

I've looked around in the documentation but can't find much info on how 
introductions are managed, in this sense. Is what I'm after possible to 
do in AspectJ?

If yes, then how? If no, then why not?

Thanks,
  Rickard