In computer science, an aspect is a part of a program that cross-cuts its core concerns, therefore violating its separation of concerns. For example, logging code can cross-cut many modules, yet the aspect of logging should be separate from the functional concerns of the module it cross-cuts. Isolating such aspects as logging and persistence from business logic is the aim of the aspect-oriented software development, of which aspect-oriented programming paradigm is most established area. Computer science is the study of information and computation. ... In computer science, a core concern is one of the main features or concerns a program is written for. ... In computer science, separation of concerns (SoC) is the process of breaking a program into distinct features that overlap in functionality as little as possible. ... Data logging is the practice of recording, in some medium, sequential data, often in a time-associated format. ... Persistence is the term used in computer science to describe a capability used by a computer programmer to store data structures in non-volatile storage such as a file system or a relational database. ... Business logic refers to the logic that embodies business rules rather than the view of data or storage of data. ... In software engineering, the programming paradigm of aspect-oriented programming (AOP), also called aspect-oriented software development (AOSD), attempts to aid programmers in the separation of concerns, or the breaking down of a program into distinct parts that overlap in functionality as little as possible. ... A programming paradigm is a paradigmatic style of programming (compare with a methodology which is a paradigmatic style of doing software engineering). ...

Aspect-orientation is not limited to programming since it is useful to identify, analyse, trace and modularise concerns (e.g., PREview) through requirements elicitation, specification and design. Aspects can be multi-dimensional by allowing both functional and non-functional behaviour to cross cut any other concerns, instead of just mapping non-functional concerns to functional requirements.

One view of aspect-oriented programming is that every major feature of the program, core concern (business logic), or cross-cutting concern (additional features), is an aspect, and by weaving them together, you finally produce a whole out of the separate aspects. This approach is known as pure aspect programming, but hybrid approaches are more commonly used, perhaps due to less of a paradigm shift between object and aspect-oriented programming is necessary. There is a similar situation with early aspect software development, with traditional methods being ehanced for aspect-orientation and new models proposed. In computer science, cross-cutting concerns, or crosscutting concerns, are aspects of a program, that do not relate to the core concerns directly, but are needed for proper program execution. ... In software engineering, the programming paradigm of aspect-oriented programming (AOP), also called aspect-oriented software development (AOSD), attempts to aid programmers in the separation of concerns, or the breaking down of a program into distinct parts that overlap in functionality as little as possible. ...

The prism analogy describes aspects with terms from the domain of light. Like splitting light into its many aspects (different colors) with a prism, you split a problem into its separate aspects. With another prism you can put the different colors back into a white ray of light, and by the process of weaving aspects you can put your solutions for the different aspects of a problem back into a solution for the whole problem. If a shaft of light entering a prism is sufficiently small such that the coloured edges meet, a spectrum results In optics, a prism is a device used to refract light, reflect it or break it up (to disperse it) into its constituent spectral colours (colours of the rainbow). ... Analogy is either the cognitive process of transferring information from a particular subject (the analogue or source) to another particular subject (the target), or a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process. ...