[openbeos] Re: Asserts?
- From: "shatty" <shatty@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 03 Oct 2002 20:08:04 -0700
I'm all for paranoid and pragmatic programming.
(maybe not pedantic :-P ) I just wanted to point out
that regardless of whether or not asserts are proper
for some task or another, there are some common error
conditions that should be returned in a few situations
where you may think to use an assert.
For example, a number of functions return B_BAD_VALUE
if you pass a null pointer when you should have passed
a pointer to an object. (usually so the function can
return a value by using that pointer) Also, some
functions return B_NO_INIT if a function is called
before the object is properly initialized. Sometimes
this is in the bebook information, but the bebook also
often says "other errors may be returned", which could
include these kinds of errors.
I do believe that using an assert is better than not
using anything. (generally asserts are easier to
debug and may catch errors that manifest in obscure
ways.) Returning an error condition has the side
benefit that if the application can recover from the
condition, it has the opportunity to do so.
Given our current position of having a reference
implementation (R5) you can and probably should run a
few tests with bad values, to see what the current
behavior is. If the current behavior is crash, then I
think it's fair to say we can do better. :-) You may
also consider writing up the bad value inputs as tests
and checking them into cvs for the general benefit.
Also, the behavior should also be documented, of
course. :-) [says the programmer who hasn't figured
out doxygen yet...]
Andrew
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