Suggestion: "fix" assert(obj)

[Frits van Bommel]

Ary Manzana wrote:
> What I meant was: if the compiler runs the invariants before and after 
> each method call... when would you like to explicitly check the 
> invariant using assert?

In the middle of a method called on it?

> ---
> SomeObject o = new SomeObject;
> 
> // Here the invariant is called automaticaly
> o.someMethod();
> // Here the invariant is called automaticaly
> 
> assert(o); // what's the point? It was done just a second.
> ---
> 
> Unless... Unless you modify a field, and then call the invariant to 
> check if everything is in place. But that's a smell of bad design.

If the field was modified externally, I agree.
But if the field was modified inside a method of the object, that method 
might want to check consistency before continuing with other stuff (that 
presumably doesn't start with calling a public method, or it would still 
be redundant).