Quality of errors in DMD

[Chris Wright via Digitalmars-d]

On Friday, 2 September 2016 at 21:16:02 UTC, Walter Bright wrote:
> assert()s are there to check that impossible situations in the 
> compiler don't actually happen. They are not for diagnosing 
> errors in user code.

There are three things that will ideally happen when someone sees 
an assert:

* They'll submit a bug report to bugzilla.
* They'll come up with a reasonably simple test case to add to 
the bug report.
* They'll find an immediate workaround for their code so they can 
get on with their life and not have to wait until the next 
compiler release.

The second and third would be greatly benefitted by the compiler 
attempting to tell us where the problem was encountered. For 
instance, if the assert was triggered while trying to generate 
code for function 
dmud.eventqueue.EventQueue!(Fiber).scheduleNear, I would know to 
look first and foremost at that function.

Yes, if I'm rebuilding my code often, I'll be able to narrow 
things down automatically, but I'm not as virtuous as I would 
like. And with templates, things get harder.