[orisho]

An assertion, I think, would crash the program. In that sense implementing them is simple - just panic when the condition is violated. Go prefers plain checks that return errors, though. Panics should be used for truly unexpected conditions, such as a nil pointer. Invalid input, as in this case, would be better served as an error.

[randomdata]

> Panics should be used for truly unexpected conditions, such as a nil pointer.

Exceptional cases, if you will.

I find it funny when people say Go doesn't have exceptions when Go is the only mainstream language that advocates for and prefers the use of exceptions.