[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.