I did not understand this comment, as they also wrote ALWAYS, NEVER and testcase. Why could you not write your own assert in Go? (I have not programmed in Go)
func assert(cond bool){
if !cond {
panic("whoopsies")
}
}Go does have build tags, so one could have 2 files for the assert function, each with opposite build tag logic. It does allow for an effective NOP (it would be a stub function and I believe the compiler would eliminate that).
But this would come with a performance penalty: it makes the function you assert() in no longer a leaf function (it calls assert()) and AFAIK, Go only inlines leaf functions. (So, any function in which you call assert() is no longer eligible for inlining.)
Conversely, at a former employer we used a set of 3rd party database libs for ODBC on Linux that for the smallest config error would emit nothing to stderr and call exit(1) from a shared lib. that was beyond annoying
That also has its advantages, but would argue that it is impossible to selectively opt in or out.
Honestly, for a well tested piece of code, the point is moot, since the assert(s) will never evaluate false anyway.
Problem is, you need to understand what you're using, and like it or not, assert is defined as a macro by the C standard. And, assert is conditionally defined (and it's not the only conditionally defined macro).
I know its long, verbose, and dry; but if you want to understand C (or C++ for that matter), you really need to read the ISO standards that correspond to the implantation.