Forum ‹ C# ‹ Debug.Assert() not allowed?

[wildbunny]

Hi guys,

Any particular reason Debug.Assert() is not allowed in sever side?

Cheers, Paul.

[Oliver]

Code checking works via a whitelist, not a blacklist. So, only the classes that are explicitly allowed by us -- we just haven't looked at the Debug class.

I did a quick look and it seems debug.assert will try to show message boxes and do something with a global listeners collection, which are things we'd rather not like to have happen in the game code.

Best,
Oliver

[wildbunny]

Code checking works via a whitelist, not a blacklist. So, only the classes that are explicitly allowed by us -- we just haven't looked at the Debug class.

I did a quick look and it seems debug.assert will try to show message boxes and do something with a global listeners collection, which are things we'd rather not like to have happen in the game code.

Best,
Oliver

But by not allowing developers to use the tools they are accustomed to you risk making the platform unattractive?

The Debug namespace contains many things which make our lives as developers easier; i find it hard to believe you've created a server back-end in c# without using Debug.Assert() yourselves, or Debug.WriteLn()?

I urge you to reconsider

Cheers, Paul.

[Oliver]

We have to have a locked down environment: We have your code running on our servers, so we can't just allow it to do whatever it wants. There are tons of classes that are off limits: File access, direct socket access, etc. etc. etc. If you want full and complete access to everything, you have to write and maintain your own scalable server infrastructure.

The trade off you get with Player.IO is less wiggle-room, but also you get to skip worrying about scalability and distribution and ops for your game.

Instead of Debug.WriteLine() you should be using Console.WriteLine()

If you want Assert, you can write a small static method yourself that does it? Like so:

Code: Select all

   public class Debug {
      public static void Assert(bool condition) { Assert(condition, null); }
      public static void Assert(bool condition, string caption) {
         if(!condition) {
            Console.Error.WriteLine("Condition "+ (caption!=null?" [" + caption + "] ":" ") + "failed!");
            throw new Exception("Assert Failed");
         }
      }
   }


Best,
Oliver

[TomatoGG]

This is the my version of Debug.Assert that I have been using so far
Two things I like about it :
1. It will only be called in the Debug version, not the Release version
2. The output on the console window will show the entire exception, including stack trace

Code: Select all

internal class MyDebug {
   [Conditional("DEBUG")]
   public static void Assert(bool flag, string text) {
      if (!flag) Console.WriteLine(new Exception(text));
   }
}


[wildbunny]

This is the my version of Debug.Assert that I have been using so far
Two things I like about it :
1. It will only be called in the Debug version, not the Release version
2. The output on the console window will show the entire exception, including stack trace

Code: Select all

internal class MyDebug {
   [Conditional("DEBUG")]
   public static void Assert(bool flag, string text) {
      if (!flag) Console.WriteLine(new Exception(text));
   }
}


Hi Tomato,

But this fails to actually stop the code? Isn't that the primary point of an assert?

Cheers, Paul.

[Oliver]

change it to:

if(!flag){
var ex = new Exception(text)
Console.WriteLine(ex);
throw ex;
}

?