bad

Many C++ programmers have been C programmers first. Therefore, a lot of times, you find statements written this way:

ptr = new type;

if(ptr == 0) // handle error...

This is a C programmer that does not yet know that the new operator will throw an error if the allocation cannot happen. This makes a lot of sense, but what does that mean to the C++ programmer?

This is a subject that comes back all the time in C/C++ boards.

Should you use assertions?

The answer is clearly yes. But the C/C++ assert() function is usually defined using a macro. Macros have several problems. The most common ones are: they offer no type checking, they do not warn you about weird side effects, they have a different syntax than the C/C++ language itself.

One good thing: for a fast program, the debug code used to check parameters, results, etc. is gone.

One really bad thing: if the expression in the macro has a side effect, the release program is different from ...