PROMON: a profile monitor of software applications

Software techniques can be efficiently used to increase the dependability of safety-critical applications. Many approaches are based on information redundancy to prevent data and code corruption during the software execution. This paper presents PROMON, a C++ library that exploits a new methodology based on the concept of “Programming by Contract” to detect system malfunctions. Resorting to assertions, pre- and post-conditions, and marginal programmer interventions, PROMON-based applications can reach high level of dependability.