Question

Assertions are a tool to do basic sanity checking for programmer errors. Consider this helper function, assert :

function AssertionFailed(message) {
  this.message = message;
}
AssertionFailed.prototype = Object.create(Error.prototype);

function assert(test, message) {
  if (!test)
    throw new AssertionFailed(message);
}

function lastElement(array) {
  assert(array.length > 0, "empty array in lastElement");
  return array[array.length - 1];
}

This provides a compact way to enforce expectations, helpfully blowing up the program if the stated condition does not hold. For instance, the lastElement function, which fetches the last element from an array, would return undefined on empty arrays if the assertion was omitted. Fetching the last element from an empty array does not make much sense, so it is almost certainly a programmer error to do so.

Assertions are a way to make sure mistakes cause failures at the point of the mistake, rather than silently producing nonsense values that may go on to cause trouble in an unrelated part of the system.

This is a book about getting computers to do what you want them to do. Computers are about as common as screwdrivers today, but they contain a lot more hidden complexity and thus are harder to operate and understand. To many, they remain alien, slightly threatening things.