C++ DEBUG Rule : use assertions

When you are developping, use the assert macro to detect errors as soon as they occur. This macro is defined in the include file <assert.h>, and is used that way :

assert (expression) ;

If expression is false, program will stop indicating which assertion failed.

What is really nice with this macro, is that you can easily get rid of it for the production version of your code, by declaring #define NDEBUG.

This is because the assert macro is defined as :

#ifndef NDEBUG
#define assert(THETEST) ...
#else
#define assert(THETEST) ((void)0)
#endif