Automatic detection and correction of programming faults for software applications

Software reliability is an important feature of a good software implementation. However some faults which cause software unreliability are not detected during the development stages, and these faults create unexpected problems for users whenever they arise. At present most of the current techniques detect faults while a software is running. These techniques interrupt the software process when a fault occurs, and require some forms of restart. In this paper Precompiled Fault Detection (PFD) technique is proposed to detect and correct faults before a source code is compiled. The objective of the PFD technique is to increase software reliability without increasing the programmers responsibilities. The concepts of ‘‘pre-compilation’’ and ‘‘pattern matching’’ are applied to PFD in order to reduce the risk of significant damage during execution period. This technique can completely eliminate the significant faults in a software and thus, improves software reliability. 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.