Second on that use of assert. "Be assertive!" I always say. Most language offer a way to run in DEBUG mode, or something like it, use that, along with assert (

Second on that use of assert. "Be assertive!" I always say. Most language offer a way to run in DEBUG mode, or something like it, use that, along with assert (which only runs in DEBUG mode) to make sure all your assumptions are correct. You're positive a value can never be NULL? assert that! You're absolutely positive an integer addition will not overflow? assert that! You're absolutely sure that your super-fast table returns the same results as the complete algorithm? Run them both in debug mode and assert that!