Why You Should Never Disable Asserts in Production

Summary

The article argues that disabling asserts in production is a harmful practice, contrary to common belief. It explores how asserts serve as critical documentation and runtime checks that enforce program invariants, and disabling them removes safety nets that catch bugs early. The author uses Zig's std.debug.assert as a starting point but generalizes the argument to software engineering best practices, emphasizing that asserts should remain enabled in production to maintain code reliability and developer confidence.