Context-oriented software engineering

Abstract

There are a number of constructs to implement context-dependent behavior, such as conditional branches using if statements, method dispatching in object-oriented programming (such as the state design pattern), dynamic deployment of aspects in aspect-oriented programming, and layers in context-oriented programming (COP). Uses of those constructs significantly affect the modularity of the obtained implementation. While there are a number of cases where COP improves modularity, it is not clear when we should use COP in general.