- Phase Separation. It supports the separation of the three phases of contract enforcement: detection, reporting and response. Detection is achieved by simple boolean condition evaluation. Reporting is achieved via a callback function, either the stock xContract_violationReport() function, or one supplied by the user. Response is to terminate the process.
- The Principle of Irrecoverability. If the reporting receiver does not cause the process to terminate, then the library will always do so.
- The Principle of Removability. Enforcements may be enabled/disabled either at compile-time or at runtime according to the choices of the programmer
- Portability. It relies on no platform-specific or compiler-specific constructs. The only library it relies on is the 100% header-only, open-source STLSoft library. It works with a large number of C/C++ compilers.
xContract is the second of a triumvirate of C/C++ software quality assurance libraries provided by Synesis Software. The first library, xTests, is an automated testing library. The third, as yet unreleased, library, xCover, is an automated code coverage library.
