[aspectj-users] Conditional Compilation and AspectJ

["neil loughran" <n.loughran@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,

One of the features missing from the java language is a pre-processor to handle conditional compilation.  Many people will point out that this was only really needed in C++ to handle different platforms and that its possible to imitate #ifdef kind of constructs using static variables, which is how the guys at Philips reduce their preprocessing directives for their Koala component technology.

ie.

private final static boolean DEBUG = true;

 

..

 

        if(DEBUG)
        {
        ... some functionality
        }
   
whereby setting DEBUG  as a static variable would cause the compiler to include the code or not.

I've been wondering if it is possible to do the same thing in AspectJ on advice, whereby the compiler would know that the branches could not be reached so would not include them.

 

I put together a simple aspect as shown below

 

aspect X

 

{
    private final static boolean CHECK = false;
   
    pointcut something() : call (public void SomeClass.printMsg(String));
    pointcut check() : if(CHECK);
   
    before() :something() && check()
    {
        //.. some functionality

    }
}

 

but found after checking the bytecode that the compiler converted the advice into a method even though it would never get executed.

 

Is there a reason for this? 

 

Cheers

Neil