Mailing-List: contact aries-dev-help@incubator.apache.org; run by ezmlm
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: aries-dev@incubator.apache.org
Received-SPF: neutral (nike.apache.org: local policy)
Message-ID: <4ACA2A77.9000505@apache.org>
Date: Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:18:47 -0400
From: Donald Woods <dwoods@apache.org>
User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.23 (Macintosh/20090812)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: aries-dev@incubator.apache.org
Subject: Re: asserts
References: <2D1AC299-C2ED-4E8C-8885-74999392EA0B@toolazydogs.com>
 <a1e060230910050209k46217986y9896bf3e09dbbcbc@mail.gmail.com>
 <DAEECA23-2653-47E8-8500-99303818805A@toolazydogs.com>
In-Reply-To: <DAEECA23-2653-47E8-8500-99303818805A@toolazydogs.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Why not just throw a RuntimeException, with an informative message as to 
what the invalid value was and what was expected?  We use that method 
over asserts all the time in OpenJPA.


-Donald


Alan D. Cabrera wrote:
> I wouldn't say that one is better than the other.  I think that both 
> have their places.
> 
> I use assertions to catch catastrophic conditions early on.  Note that I 
> use the word catastrophic.  The idea is that if you get values that are 
> known a priori to be bad and will definitely cause the server to barf 
> it's better to complain right then and there rather than complain at 
> some later point in time when the server tries to use them.
> 
> 
> Regards,
> Alan
> 
> 
> 
> On Oct 5, 2009, at 2:09 AM, David Bosschaert wrote:
> 
>> I guess I don't mind this but I wonder what you are trying to achieve? I
>> mean, you have a running system and all of a sudden you get an assertion
>> failure. What are you going to do?
>>
>> I always wondered whether code assertions are really the right tool 
>> for the
>> job...
>> In my opinion it would be better to add a bunch of unit tests to the 
>> system
>> and put all your assertions in there. That way your assertions are 
>> part of
>> the continuous build & test cycle and when there is an assertion 
>> failure you
>> will actually have the opportunity to do something about it: fix the code
>> and rerun the tests...
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> David
>>
>> 2009/10/3 Alan D. Cabrera <list@toolazydogs.com>
>>
>>> Does anyone mind if I start putting in assert statements in the code?
>>>
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Alan
>>>
>>>
> 
>