[Firebird-test] WBT: Design by contract

[Pavel C. <pc...@us...>]

Hi all,

In languages without direct DBC support it mean asserts for 
precondition, postcodition and invariants included in the code.

Pro's and Con's:

This technique is a variant of Development test cases, but included 
directly to the source code. Can be used in both ways, as a substitution 
or complementary to dev. test cases. It's not hard to utilize and usually 
doesn't impose a significant burden to core developers.

Implementation:

First, we have to verify asserts already present in source code and 
usability of DEBUG build on all supported platforms. We can initiate a 
sub-project in Firebird to include asserts into selected libraries and 
separate subsystems and/or declare a policy for core developers 
about when and how include asserts into source code.

Current status:

There're asserts already in the engine, so we just need to capitalize on 
them, i.e. use DEBUG builds in testing. But I worry that they are not 
always up-to-date/correct nor complete, so review would be needed.  

Questions for you:
1) Do you think that we should use asserts ? 


2) If yes, in what parts of core engine do you think that we should 
include asserts ?


3) If yes, what procedure do you recommend ?

4) If yes, what should we focus on: precondition, postcondition, 
invariants, some of these, all or other not listed here ?


Your comments would be greatly appreciated.
Best regards

Pavel Cisar
http://www.ibphoenix.com
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