Assert

[David B. Held]

Georg Wrede wrote:
> [...]
> DAVID, please, take note: enforce might not be the optimum word for it. 
> I'd rather suggest "ensure". (Yes, David and not Andrei, because I 
> assume English is David's mother tongue, so he's got some influence on 
> Andrei about this.)
> 
> IMHO, "enforce" is like holding somebody at gunpoint, while "ensure" is 
> like an "ultimate check". In other words, "enforce" ends up (in the real 
> world) in coercing, while "ensure" ends up in "double check this, and if 
> it doesn't work, ask your boss".
> [...]

I agree that denotationally, "ensure" is probably more correct, but 
connotationally, I think "enforce" is better.  "Ensure" has a pansy tone 
to it that I wouldn't take very seriously; but when I see "enforce", I 
think "Oh, I'd better take a look at what this is doing."

Dave