Re: the java assert mechanism: is it useful?

From:

Lew <lew@lewscanon.com>

Newsgroups:

comp.lang.java.programmer

Date:

Tue, 5 Aug 2008 12:23:37 -0700 (PDT)

Message-ID:

<dac1482c-6aa3-4a59-899f-6f49fc3ac0c1@x41g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>

Lew wrote:

Assertions typically are disabled in production.

marlow.and...@googlemail.com wrote:

They are with the java assert keyword. But I am asking if people
actually like it this way.

Well, the fact that they typically are is evidence that they do, is it
not?

Whether one likes it or not is not actually relevant. There are
objective reasons to turn assertions on or off, a decision made by the
operations staff as pointed out upthread. Assertions can be enabled
or disabled at a pretty fine-grained level; it's not just all-or-
nothing for the application.

The question isn't whether one "likes to turn assertions on", but when
it's useful to do so.

That depends in part on whether the programmer was smart enough to use
assertions for the correct purpose, and not as some sort of substitute
for exceptions.

There really is plenty of material on Sun's site and elsewhere as to
how to use assertions correctly. There is no excuse to use them
improperly.

GIYF.

--
Lew