Re: [boost] Re: improved assertions?

From: Neal D. Becker (nbecker_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-06-20 07:27:19

>>>>> "Ted" == Ted Byers <r.ted.byers_at_[hidden]> writes:

    Ted> "Neal D. Becker" <nbecker_at_[hidden]> wrote in message
    Ted> news:x88ofegznbw.fsf_at_rpppc1.md.hns.com...
    >> I'd like to have assertions that include a stack traceback.  Is it
    >> possible to do this portably?  Does such a lib already exist?

    Ted> Neal, you started this.  How about giving us your take on what the
    Ted> functional requirements are?  Fernando has described two alternatives for
    Ted> dealing with trace information, and there has been a little discussion of
    Ted> these, and ways of implementing either, but before we can really get a sense
    Ted> of where to go, we ought to have some agreed set of functional requirements
    Ted> we can use to assess the available options.  Otherwise we may get lost in a
    Ted> sea of discussions about our different tastes in how things ought to be
    Ted> done.  If we can agree on some set of functional requirements, we can then
    Ted> proceed to objectively appraising each offered solution to see just how much
    Ted> of our collective wish list can be realised in a reasonable amount of time,
    Ted> and which items on our wish list might need to be sacrificed for the sake of
    Ted> expediency.

    Ted> What concerns led you to ask about this?  How do you see it working?  How do
    Ted> you see the options Fernando mentioned fitting into this?

Sorry I didn't reply sooner, the message was lost in my inbox.

The immediate need I had was, a low-level function contains an
assert.  I gave the code to an associate, who quickly triggered the
assertion.  I couldn't easily tell where it came from since it could
have been called on various paths.  I would have liked to see a
traceback showing the path through my code, maybe up to main.

I personally don't often use exceptions.  By default on my environment
(linux/g++) they provide no information to the user that can be fed
back to the programmer (other than a core).  In most cases the core is
useless when compiled with high optimization on g++.