On 11/11/2014 2:40 PM, 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?
We love 'assert' so much that we have 20-30 'assertXYZ' variations in
unittest. The statement 'assert expression' is almost equivalent to
if not expression: raise AssertionError('expression')
We have perhaps 100 mostly more specialized exceptions builtin and in
the stdlib. There is nearly always a better, more specific exception
and error message.
As far as I can tell, Python supports assert perfectly well. When run
with the optimization flagging, the asserts are truly removed.
Separating tests from main code removes test asserts from the main code.
Removal by -0 relegates bare assert to specialized usage.
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".
How much usage depends considerably on the programmer.
--
Terry Jan Reedy
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