As mentioned before I've been working on getting the web application that $company is writing to work under the latest OpenFrame. If I think of everything more like aspects suddenly pipelines make even more crazy sort of sense. Currently we have type 1 pipeline segments that deal with things like session management, and access control, and type 2 pipeline segments that deal with big chunky elements of functionality like lets say, viewing an image. The problem with the type two segments is that they can be a pain in the ass to maintain.
With the example of a segment that loads images they all call or at least call something that calls the mechanism to load the image and prep it for user display. I've been realizing however that that we can abstract away not only the calls to load the image, but also the number of places we have to do it. How? Well, by using the pipeline of course! If the functionality to load and prep an image when needed was moved into a segment of its own, and that simply provided an image when needed to the pipeline then the type two segments need only to fetch that image from the pipeline and act as the view in the MVC pattern. Looking at the problem in this manner gives us a solution that would effectively reduce the view and the model elements through what is close to an AOP-based approach. Cool!
Uh oh, I think I'm rambling.
