In computer science

Computer science

Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...

, a join point is a point in the control flow

Control flow

In computer science, control flow refers to the order in which the individual statements, instructions, or function calls of an imperative or a declarative program are executed or evaluated....

 of a program

Computer program

A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...

. In aspect-oriented programming

Aspect-oriented programming

In computing, aspect-oriented programming is a programming paradigm which aims to increase modularity by allowing the separation of cross-cutting concerns...

 a set of join points is described as a pointcut

Pointcut

In aspect-oriented computer programming, a pointcut is a set of join points. Whenever the program execution reaches one of the join points described in the pointcut, a piece of code associated with the pointcut is executed. This allows a programmer to describe where and when additional code...

. A join point is a specification of when, in the corresponding main program, the aspect

Aspect (computer science)

In computer science, an aspect of a program is a feature linked to many other parts of the program, but which is not related to the program's primary function. An aspect crosscuts the program's core concerns, therefore violating its separation of concerns that tries to encapsulate unrelated functions...

 code should be executed.

The join point is a point of execution in the base code where the advice

Advice

Advice may refer to:*AdviSe , in complexity theory, a string with extra information used by Turing machine or other computing device...

 specified in a corresponding pointcut

Pointcut

In aspect-oriented computer programming, a pointcut is a set of join points. Whenever the program execution reaches one of the join points described in the pointcut, a piece of code associated with the pointcut is executed. This allows a programmer to describe where and when additional code...

 is applied.

Conceptually, a join point exists where a precondition

Precondition

In computer programming, a precondition is a condition or predicate that must always be true just prior to the execution of some section of code or before an operation in a formal specification....

 for a command in Hoare logic

Hoare logic

Hoare logic is a formal system with a set of logical rules for reasoning rigorously about the correctness of computer programs. It was proposed in 1969 by the British computer scientist and logician C. A. R. Hoare, and subsequently refined by Hoare and other researchers...

 makes an assertion

Assertion (computing)

In computer programming, an assertion is a predicate placed in a program to indicate that the developer thinks that the predicate is always true at that place.For example, the following code contains two assertions:...

 parametric upon the joint and several advice supplied by the different concerns at that point in a generalized abstract process, the unified thing composed from its concrete aspects being the pointcut.

See also

AspectJ

AspectJ

AspectJ is an aspect-oriented extension created at PARC for the Java programming language. It is available in Eclipse Foundation open-source projects, both stand-alone and integrated into Eclipse. AspectJ has become the widely-used de-facto standard for AOP by emphasizing simplicity and usability...

 An aspect-oriented extension for the Java

Java (programming language)

Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...

 programming language

Programming language

A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....

.