assertions

The assertions.lgt file contains definitions for two meta-predicates, assertion/1-2, which allows the use of assertions on your source code to print warning and error messages (using the message printing mechanism). The assertions_messages.lgt file defines the default message translations generated when assertions succeed, fail, or throw an exception.

API documentation

This tool API documentation is available at:

../../docs/library_index.html#assertions

Loading

This tool can be loaded using the query:

| ?- logtalk_load(assertions(loader)).

Testing

To test this tool, load the tester.lgt file:

| ?- logtalk_load(assertions(tester)).

Adding assertions to your source code

The assertion/1 predicate takes a goal as argument. For example:

foo(L) :-
    assertions::assertion(non_empty_list(L)),
    ...

The assertion/2 predicate takes as arguments a term for passing context information and a goal. Using again a unit test as an example:

foo(L) :-
    assertions::assertion(foo_list_alerts, non_empty_list(L)),
    ...

When using a large number of assertions, you can use a lighter syntax by adding a uses/2 directive. For example:

:- uses(assertions, [assertion/1, assertion/2]).

Automatically adding file and line context information to assertions

The assertions/1 parametric object can be used as a hook object to automatically add file and line context information, represented by the term file_lines(File, BeginLine-EndLine), to calls to the assertion/1 predicate by goal-expanding it to calls to the assertion/2 predicate (the expansion assumes that a uses/2 directive is being used in the code that will be expanded to direct assertion/1 calls to the assertions object). For example, assuming the file using assertions is named source, it would be compiled and loaded using the call:

logtalk_load(source, [hook(assertions(debug))])

Suppressing assertion calls from source code

The assertions/1 parametric object can be used as a hook object to suppress calls to the assertion/1-2 predicates using goal-expansion (the expansion assumes assertions::assertion/1-2 messages). For example, assuming the file using assertions is named source, it would be compiled and loaded using the call:

logtalk_load(source, [hook(assertions(production))])

Redirecting assertion failure messages

By default, assertion failures and errors are printed to the standard output stream. These messages, however, can be intercepted by defining the logtalk::message_hook/4 multifile predicate. For example:

:- category(redirect_assertions_messages).

    :- multifile(logtalk::message_hook/4).
    :- dynamic(logtalk::message_hook/4).

    logtalk::message_hook(Message, error, assertions, _) :-
        writeq(my_log_file, Message), write(my_log_file, '.\n').

:- end_category.

Converting assertion failures into errors

If you want an assertion failure to result in a failure or a runtime error, you can intercept the assertion failure messages, optionally still printing them, and throw an error. For example:

:- category(assertions_failures_to_errors).

    :- multifile(logtalk::message_hook/4).
    :- dynamic(logtalk::message_hook/4).

    logtalk::message_hook(Message, error, assertions, Tokens) :-
        % uncomment the next two lines to also print the default message
        % logtalk::message_prefix_stream(error, assertions, Prefix, Stream),
        % logtalk::print_message_tokens(Stream, Prefix, Tokens),
        throw(error(Message, _)).

:- end_category.

In alternative, if you want assertions to always trigger an exception, use instead the lgtunit tool assertions/1-2 public predicates.