Subject Oriented Programming

See: http://www.research.ibm.com/sop/ (BrokenLink)

c.f. AspectOrientedProgramming.

This is an approach building ObjectOriented software systems by composing several sub-systems (known as subjects) according to a composition expression which describes the rules for what parts of the subjects correspond and how they, in turn, should be merged. The idea is that this supports SeparationOfConcerns: each subject encodes the important aspects of the system as perceived from a particular perspective.

Lately this work has been generalized into the notion of HyperSpaces.

Subjects might be good for encoding the structure of patterns separately and using composition to deploy them in a project. (I'm saying this here mainly because I hope someone will take the bait and disagree with me)

-- MarkSkipper

This dangerous viewpoint will inevitably lead to eXtreme Design!

-- MarkSpanglet - I prefer a classless society