[plt-scheme] contracts.ss: Can you disable them at runtime?

On May 17, 2007, at 9:41 AM, Richard Cobbe wrote:

> On Thu, May 17, 2007 at 08:17:13AM -0400, Matthias Felleisen wrote:
>>
>>  On May 17, 2007, at 12:05 AM, Grant Rettke wrote:
>>
>>> Can you disable contracts at runtime?
>>
>>  Short: No. (I assume you mean "after deployment" because  
>> contracts are
>>  inherently a run-time concept, i.e., they are what your type  
>> system can't
>>  express.)
>>
>>  Long:  Tony Hoare once said that assertions are like life vests.  
>> Why use
>>  them on land during practice and leave them back when you go to sea?
>
> I've often wanted to disable them for certain modules even "during
> practice."  When I'm running test cases and debugging, having to  
> repeatedly
> recompile a module with complicated structure and contract  
> definitions is
> slow enough to be very annoying and almost slow enough to be  
> impractical.

It sounds like you're using contracts as a substitute for types and a  
pre-optimization experience. -- Matthias