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Eclipse AspectJ: Aspect-Oriented Programming with AspectJ and the Eclipse AspectJ Development Tools Review by Thomas Duff
I'm finally beginning to understand AOP...
Since my last attempt to get a book to learn about AspectJ wasn't very productive, I decided to try again with Eclipse AspectJ: Aspect-Oriented Programming with AspectJ and the Eclipse AspectJ Development Tools by Adrian Colyer, Andy Clement, George Harley, and Matthew Webster. *Much*, much better...
Content:
Part 1 - Introducing Eclipse, AspectJ, and AJDT: Getting Started; First Steps in AJDT; Extending The Application; More AJDT
Part 2 - The AspectJ Language: An Overview Of AspectJ; Straight To The Point; Take My Advice; Inter-Type Declarations; Aspects; Using The AspectJ API
Part 3 - Putting It All Together: Adopting AspectJ; Advanced AJDT; Aspect-Oriented Design; Command-Line AspectJ; AspectJ Language Quick Reference; Next Steps; AJDT Icons Reference; Index
To give you an idea of how much better I liked this book... I learned more in the preface than I knew after going through the other book I reviewed. :-)
There's a lot to like about how this book is done. Part 2 - the coverage of the actual language - is more than adequate to give you the reference material you need in order to learn the language. With each concept like pointcuts and advice, you get a tutorial of the feature, examples of how it actually works, as well as reference material for the methods and properties it uses. There's probably enough here to get you quite far down the learning path. But coupled with parts 1 & 3, it's more than enough to get you fully competent in the language. Part 1 gives you plenty of knowledge and grounding in how to use Eclipse to start coding an AspectJ application. They have a nice example of an insurance application that helps bring the theory into practice. Part 3 was a nice touch, too. Since AspectJ is designed to work *with* your object-oriented applications, this section helps you plan out how you can actually start applying the new skills in your environment. Since aspect-oriented programming (AOP) hasn't yet achieved any critical mass, there's little chance you'll be able to apply it in an all-out fashion. But using the material in part 3, you'll be able to plan out some pilots and situations where you can get your feet wet. Very cool...
Even as a way to get a high-level understanding of AOP, this book works very well. To take the next step from high-level understanding to competency, you'll have everything you need right here. I'd definitely recommend this book for anyone wanting to delve into this area...