Assertions are to validate things do not happen. They do not let me trace a sample value through code with a debugger, step through lines with that value, and a

Assertions are to validate things do not happen. They do not let me trace a sample value through code with a debugger, step through lines with that value, and add further breakpoints. unit tests let me pick sample values, and I do what I'm talking about using unit test libraries, not assertion libraries. Perhaps you misunderstood me. > many failure cases as we've seen again and again in the last decade with status page that fail to detect any error That is a political problem, not a testing problem. The majority of status pages that fail to detect errors are because the company decided to have a human update it because the test failed too often, or did not differentiate "error" and "warn" or provide a human description. Status page uptime is often a political matter for a company, and no unit testing practices will fix a political problem.