How does SAND/sandev compare to AOP?
Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP) and a framework generator are overlapping solutions derived from different perspectives. Both work from a definition to produce code in accordance with a pattern, and a complete application framework is equally valuable whether generated via AOP, or a framework generator, or both. A framework generator can easily work with AOP thanks to the output of a code generator being indistinguishable from handwritten source. A framework generator is first and foremost a generator, which means it runs before code compilation. That distinguishes it from runtime interpretive techniques (such as reflection, runtime metadata discovery, XML data parsing etc), and from post-compilation modification techniques such as bytecode manipulation. These techniques are also important, and increasingly a part of application processing and platform deployment, but they are distinct from framework generators based on when they do their work. The goal of a framework generator is to
