Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) is used under the hood of some of the most powerful libraries for Java, .NET, and Coldfusion development (amongst others). AOP finds uses primarily for cross-cutting concerns such as logging and security, and supporting practices like object mocking for unit testing. Developers can also use AOP in their own applications as they see fit to handle additional functionality that does not lend itself well to an object-oriented implementation.

While the need for AOP is just as prevalent in ActionScript 3 development, no general purpose libraries for AOP in ActionScript 3 have been released. After grumbling about this for six months in 2008, I decided to look in to what it would take to provide an AOP library for ActionScript 3.

My presentation will take you through the journey I undertook understanding the inner workings of AOP in other languages, and how AS3 and the ActionScript Virtual Machine really worked under the hood. I will also be showing you Loom, the library I am about to release which supports AOP using the methods devised during my search (it might even be finished by the time our meeting rolls around!).

Prior to attending, I would recommend that you get understanding of AOP by reading the Wikipedia entry. I look forward to seeing you there!