June 29, 2026
Code drama: the sequel
The Return of Aspect Oriented Programming
Old coding idea comes back and the comments instantly catch fire
TLDR: The article says an old idea for separating repetitive coding chores from main program logic may be useful again. Commenters were deeply split, with some seeing neat structure and many others warning it hides too much and gets scary fast when real-world problems hit.
A dusty old programming idea is trying to make a comeback, and the internet is reacting like someone brought a fax machine to a group chat. The article argues that programmers juggle a ridiculous number of side chores while writing software — things like security, logging, testing, privacy, deployment, and error handling — and suggests that "aspect oriented programming" (a way to pull those side concerns out of the main code) deserves another look. In plain English: keep the business logic in one place, and let the repetitive background stuff happen around it.
But the comments? Absolute chaos. The loudest reaction was pure distrust. One commenter basically screamed, "Oh HELL NO" at the idea of letting an artificial intelligence system act like the "weaver" that invisibly stitches these rules into code. Another mocked the whole thing as a joke: why replace formal tools with a bot that might just freestyle your program? That fear — hidden behavior, surprise bugs, spooky changes behind the curtain — dominated the mood.
There was also a very practical complaint: AOP makes the easy stuff look elegant, until the one weird, high-pressure case arrives and suddenly everything gets harder. And then came the classic community shrug: has anyone even used this outside Spring? A few people did defend the concept as inspiration for modern "hooks," but overall the vibe was less "welcome back, king" and more "we remember what happened last time."
Key Points
- •The article enumerates many responsibilities programmers must address beyond core business logic, starting with correctness and efficiency.
- •It identifies software quality concerns such as debuggability, maintainability, testability, and logging as integral parts of development.
- •It includes operational and governance concerns such as security, privacy, dependency management, and deployment.
- •It highlights additional needs for long-running systems, including observability, persistence, input validation, and error handling.
- •The article frames these cross-cutting concerns as context for discussing the return of aspect-oriented programming.