Matlab compatibility of assert (was: Re: assert () taking long time)

[John W. Eaton]

On 09/23/2013 05:31 PM, Rik wrote:

> I just checked in a changeset which avoids pre-calculating the error
> message which may never get used (~16% speed-up).  I also did a little
> profiling and changed a repmat construction to a const*ones(...) (~23%
> speed-up).  So, overall maybe a 33% improvement.  I think if you want to
> substitute a much simpler, albeit faster, version of assert you should make
> it a local change.  The assert.m in Octave needs to stay general and able
> to work for simple logical expressions, numeric comparisons, on up to
> recursive comparison of cell arrays and structures.  Perhaps the easiest
> thing would be to rename your function to qassert.m (Quick Assert) and then
> find and replace all instances of assert in your code with qassert.

We also have a Matlab compatibility problem here.  Octave introduced 
assert a long time ago as part of the unit test functions.  Later, TMW 
added an assert function with a different interface to Matlab:


http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/assert.html?searchHighlight=assert

In the simple one-argument case I think they work in essentially the 
same way.  But with additional arguments, Matlab's assert is much 
different from Octave's.  I don't think there is any way to provide both 
forms without breaking backward compatibility for Octave.

jwe