Design By Contract

[Don Clugston]

Chris Nicholson-Sauls wrote:
> Georg Wrede wrote:
>> Chris Nicholson-Sauls wrote:
>>
>>> Bruno Medeiros wrote:
>>>
>>>> Chris Nicholson-Sauls wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Stephane Wirtel wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I don't know if there is a release mode or debug mode, so. I did not
>>>>>> read the specs of D. I would like to known if is it possible to 
>>>>>> disable
>>>>>> the design by contract in release mode ?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Well, there is debug mode, release mode, and what I like to term 
>>>>> "indifferent mode."  To get debug mode you, simply enough, pass the 
>>>>> "-debug" command line switch to DMD.  To get release mode, you pass 
>>>>> "-release" to it, which disables all the runtime features covered 
>>>>> by Design-by-Contract, and a few other things.  To get "indifferent 
>>>>> mode" just don't pass either switch.  I'm really not sure what to 
>>>>> say about it, except that it neither passes the debug flag to the 
>>>>> parser (there is a 'debug' attribute that can be used for applying 
>>>>> debug-mode-only code, with an optional 'else' clause for its 
>>>>> indifferent/release-mode counterpart), nor does it seem to cut out 
>>>>> the features that release-mode cuts.  Its... just there.  Huh.
>>>>>
>>>>> In short, essentially... yes.  In release mode, all runtime 
>>>>> Design-by-Contract (and other related things) are gone.
>>>>>
>>>>> -- Chris Nicholson-Sauls
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> And what do you call "-release -debug" mode? It's confusing (perhaps 
>>>> unnecessarily) but the two options are not related, there are 4 
>>>> "modes".
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> Personally, I call it "confounded mode" and never use it.  Not even 
>>> sure what use it could have.
>>
>>
>> Debugging release code? :-)
> 
> Thank you for this most wonderful headache. :)

In my C++ code, the most common bugs only occur in release mode. I 
stopped using debug mode for that reason; in C++, I normally only use 
the equivalent of -release and -release -debug.