assert in Perl

While I like the synactic sugar that Carp::Assert provides I can't decide whether or not to use it:

The module's author points out that using the module can slow down your code because its assertions are implemented as subroutines
The Pragmatic Programmers recommend leaving assertions turned on. If you do this with Carp::Assert, you'll end up with lots more subroutine calls in your code.
Perl allows you to write EXPR or die 'error message' - easy to read but no performance hit.
C's assertion mechanism is implemented using a preprocessor macro, so would assert be a good candidate for a source filter in Perl?
Finally, how does Perl6 address this problem?

Thanks for any input.

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Re: assert in Perl by liz (Monsignor) on Oct 17, 2003 at 12:02 UTC
The perldelta for 5.8.1 contains this entry in "Future Directions": A new feature called assertions will be available. This means that one can have code called assertions sprinkled in the code: usually they are optimised away, but they can be enabled with the "-A" option. I'm not sure how this will look like in Perl, but I assume it would be something like: `ASSERT { stuff to check, things to warn about }` [download] The code block would not be compiled unless the -A flag is specified. I have no idea how that would look in Perl6, but I would assume it would be similar to what 5.10 will bring. Liz	[reply] [d/l]

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Re: assert in Perl
by liz (Monsignor) on Oct 17, 2003 at 12:02 UTC

A new feature called assertions will be available. This means that one can have code called assertions sprinkled in the code: usually they are optimised away, but they can be enabled with the "-A" option.

I'm not sure how this will look like in Perl, but I assume it would be something like:

ASSERT { stuff to check, things to warn about }
[download]

The code block would not be compiled unless the -A flag is specified.

I have no idea how that would look in Perl6, but I would assume it would be similar to what 5.10 will bring.

Liz

[reply]
[d/l]