[eclipse-dev] enable assert during tests?

[Stephan Herrmann <stephan.herrmann@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi

I happened to realize that JDT tests are executed without the recommended "-ea" 
switch, both during gerrit tests and during production builds. I also took a few 
samples of other tests and nowhere could I find "-ea".

Shouldn't this be globally enabled for all tests?
Bonus question: can this be set globally without interfering with individual 
test bundles declaring <tycho.surefire.argLine>?

For test launches in the IDE this was fixed via https://bugs.eclipse.org/479553 
so why do those builds behave differently?

Scanning the code I could not find an overwhelming number of assert statements 
in productive code, but if we promise that those will be checked during tests 
maybe we can encourage developers to make more use of this facility (despite how 
it failed to deliver the promised support for design-by-contract ... remember 
the long-time #1 hit in the Java Bug Parade? ...).

That said, in my case I was actually happy that one test run did NOT have "-ea" 
because it detected one of the stupidest mistakes I had made: putting a 
state-changing operation into "assert". Ergo: ideally between gerrit and 
production builds one should *enable* assert, the other should *disable* to get 
maximum coverage.

best,
Stephan