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[Python-Dev] (#19562) Asserts in Python stdlib code (datetime.py)

Antoine Pitrou solipsis at pitrou.net
Sun Nov 17 11:00:50 CET 2013 
On Sun, 17 Nov 2013 18:04:43 +1100
Steven D'Aprano <steve at pearwood.info> wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 16, 2013 at 04:46:00PM +0100, Antoine Pitrou wrote:
> 
> > I agree that conflating the two doesn't help the discussion.
> > While removing docstrings may be beneficial on memory-constrained
> > devices, I can't remember a single situation where I've wanted to
> > remove asserts on a production system.
> > 
> > (I also tend to write less and less asserts in production code, since
> > all of them tend to go in unit tests instead, with the help of e.g.
> > mock objects)
> 
> I'm the opposite. I like using asserts in my code, and while I don't 
> *typically* run it with -O, I do think it is valuable to have to 
> opportunity to remove asserts. I've certainly written code where -O has 
> given a major micro-optimization of individual functions (anything up to 
> 50% speedup). I've never measured if that lead to a significant 
> whole-application speedup, but I assume that was some benefit. (I know, 
> premature optimization and all that...)

So you assumed there was some benefit, but you never used it anyway?

Regards

Antoine.
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