1. A method, implemented by a computing system programmed to perform the following, comprising: identifying, by a first application on the computing system, a type of event to be measured with respect to a second application; issuing, by the first application, a first system call identifying the type of event; receiving, by the first application, an identifier corresponding to the event type; causing, by the first application, the second application to begin execution; after the execution of the second application is completed, issuing, by the first application, a second system call including the identifier corresponding to the event type; and receiving, by the first application, a value of a hardware counter corresponding to the event type from an operating system.