Reading Jon Udell on Rule engines and rule languages.
Aren't Aspects compile time rule engines (just like C++ templating is compile time functional programming)? And isn't it a natural idea to implement a mixed-mode rule/procedural approach with aspects.

Full on rules based programming is IMO as Udell puts it 'another mess'.
In my daily work writing software for a lowly domain registration engine we encounter the procedural/rule disconnect all the time like all other business programmers. The greatest problems we have with our rule setup is that you tend to apply rules in very data rich environments (that's where they're handy) and that makes testing and debugging the rules a nightmarish and very slow process to the great disappointment of management who heard us praising the rules approach when we were struggling with some hideous legacy monolithic procedural code.