Re: JSON/YAML/TOML/etc. parsing performance

[Paul Eggert]

Philipp Stephani wrote:
> I don't understand why minimizing the number of checks and assertions
> should be a worthwhile goal. At the very least, the assertions document the
> assumptions that we make about the values, and as such they are valuable
> even if they never trigger.

One can take the process too far. To take a deliberately extreme example, 
'eassert (INT_MIN < 0)' would clutter the code unnecessarily, and would be 
discarded by the compiler anyway. Although none of the assertions in question 
were *that* obvious, some did have that flavor (and indeed, were optimized away 
by GCC). The patch that I proposed eliminated those, while retaining the ones 
that conveyed useful and nonobvious information. Admittedly some of the removals 
were judgment calls; however, the point remains that easserts should not waste 
the reader's time unnecessarily.