Once we accept that it is useful to write programs (queries) to understand programs, it is a natural progression to think about other meta programs that would be useful. We already have examples in program generators/transformers/weavers such as those being advocated for MDA and AOSD. These tools help to create or recreate a program from higher-level programs/models/concerns. The focus is on getting it right up front, with little support for incremental refinement. Unfortunately, they do not help the developer who must refactor a large application.

Author: Dave Thomas
Published: Journal of Object Technology, vol. 4, no. 1, January-February 2005, pp. 7-11