[baby]

That is what I was wondering: http://golang.org/doc/faq#assertions

> Why does Go not have assertions?

> Go doesn't provide assertions. They are undeniably convenient, but our experience has been that programmers use them as a crutch to avoid thinking about proper error handling and reporting. Proper error handling means that servers continue operation after non-fatal errors instead of crashing. Proper error reporting means that errors are direct and to the point, saving the programmer from interpreting a large crash trace. Precise errors are particularly important when the programmer seeing the errors is not familiar with the code.

> We understand that this is a point of contention. There are many things in the Go language and libraries that differ from modern practices, simply because we feel it's sometimes worth trying a different approach.

I was wondering how the "go test" function was working as well, here is a start of an answer: http://golang.org/doc/faq#How_do_I_write_a_unit_test

[ExpiredLink]

> programmers use them as a crutch to avoid thinking about proper error handling and reporting

Funny, because asserts in C are used to find bugs but not for "error handling and reporting".

[dasmithii]

I tend to use Go's panic() in many situations where, in C, I would make assertions.

[amscanne]

The point is that they are commonly abused to provide error handling and reporting.

[sfk]

That is what the Go developers claim. I don't see this abuse very often in C, either.

If a speed sensitive function in C is documented to work for integers in the range 0 < x < 256, then it makes sense to put in an assert() as a courtesy to the users of the function.

It does not make sense in every situation to do a range check and return an error, or worse, "panic" (the latter didn't work for the Ariane 5).

[amscanne]

But you're giving an example where you think an explicit panic is justified.

Losing asserts doesn't eliminate either option. It simply requires you to have exicit error handling or a panic. This is the point.