Our research has focused on identifying techniques to develop software that is amenable to refactoring and change. The Law of Demeter (LoD) was one contribution in this effort. But it led to other problems. With the current state of the art focused on Aspect-Oriented Software Development (AOSD), it is useful to revisit the general objectives of the LoD and adapt it to the new ideas. Hence we introduce the Law of Demeter for Concerns and discuss the important intersection of these approaches with traversals. We explore the ramifications of the Laws of Demeter (LoD and LoDC) to achieve better separation of concerns through improved software processes. They are supported by language mechanisms that are implemented using novel applications of automata theory.

A revised version of this paper and the slides are available from the Demeter website: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/research/demeter in the directory papers/icse-04-keynote/