>>Python manual has a very brief introduction >>of "assert" statements. It is very difficult
First you probably don't need to use asserts very often, they are useful if you are building production strength code but for most users of Python the exception mechanism is good enough. Basically we use asserts to check pre and post conditions as well as\ invariants in functions. Anything other than that should be done using explicit if/else or exceptions. The reason for that is that asserts only operate when the code is in debug mode... so they should not be used for normal run time error detection. Typical things to check are that input values are within expected ranges and of desired types. Also that the final retrurn value of a function is within expected limits. Once we finish testing the overhead of those checks might not be required in the final version if we are sure they will never deviate from the test results. The syntax can be demonstrated quite easily and Luke has done that, the intent is a little less obvious and IMHO really needs a larger example to make the value obvious. Since I'm at a cyber-cafe net terminal I dont feel like trying that just now! :-) HTH, Alan G. _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
