On 11/11/2014 11:40 AM, Peter Cacioppi wrote:
I get the impression that most Pythonistas aren't as habituated with assert
statements
as I am. Is that just a misimpression on my part? If not, is there a good
reason to
assert less with Python than other languages?
As far as I can tell, Python supports assert perfectly well. When run with the
optimization
flagging, the asserts are truly removed.
I think one needs to take care with some basic assert coding - it's not a
substitute for
unit tests, it doesn't absolve you of normal exception responsibilities, and,
most of all,
it should be used for passive inspection and not action. But given these
guidelines, I
still find it very useful as "active comments".
asserts are a specialized tool, easily abused. Sounds like you are using them
exactly as intended.
The key question to ask (if one is curious whether one is using assert correctly) is: if all the asserts are removed,
and my programs gets bad data, will it keep going as if it had gotten good data? Or, will it fail at the point it
should have failed, or will it fail somewhere else?
--
~Ethan~
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