ASSERT(3)

💖 ASSERT(3) — the debugging helper macro, bestie edition 💖

okay so this is ASSERT, from the Allegro manual, section 3. it's a debugging helper macro in the Allegro game programming library. she's little. she's mighty. she does nothing 99% of the time and then saves your whole entire life. 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <allegro.h>

void ASSERT(condition);

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

bestie. listen. ASSERT is a debugging helper macro, and the way it works is genuinely so iconic: normally it compiles away to nothing. like, poof. gone. zero cost. not even a vibe check. 💅

BUT — and this is the plot twist — if you defined the preprocessor symbol DEBUGMODE before including the Allegro headers, then it will actually check the condition you handed it, and if that condition fails, it calls al_assert(). and al_assert()'s default action? stop the program. and report the assert. that's it. that's the whole dramatic arc. 💀

oh and the best part? you can use this macro even when Allegro has not been initialised. no init, no setup, no nothing. she just works. main character energy fr fr. 👑

okay example time, look at this:

#define DEBUGMODE
#include
...
void my_blitter(BITMAP *source, int flags)
{
   int some_variables;
   ASSERT(source != NULL);
   ASSERT(flags & GAME_RUNNING);
   ...
}

see how DEBUGMODE is defined up top, before the include? that's the whole trick. and then inside the function you just sprinkle your ASSERTs wherever you're feeling paranoid, and in a normal build they vanish into the void, but in a debug build they'll yell at you the second something's wrong. obsessed. ✨

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

• al_assert(3)
• TRACE(3)
• register_assert_handler(3)
• expackf(3)

that's the page!! go assert something, bestie, you deserve it 🫶

this was Allegro, version 4.4.3 — writing to you straight from the Allegro manual, section 3, no date on the tin, just vibes. bye bye 🌈✨💖