cascading python executions only if return code is 0

[Roy Smith]

In article <52b7a0e4$0$29994$c3e8da3$5496439d at news.astraweb.com>,
 Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python at pearwood.info> wrote:

> Anyway, I may be completely misinterpreting what I'm reading. Perhaps the
> assertion is checking a function invariant ("one of the strategies will
> always succeed") in which case you're doing it exactly right and I should
> shut up now :-)

Yes :-)

More specifically, the assertion exception will get caught way up in 
some django middleware which will log a stack trace and return a HTTP 
50-something.  This will typically be followed by somebody like me 
noticing the stack dump and trying to figure out WTF happened.

Assertions are great tools.  People should use them more often.  In a 
sense, they're executable comments.  They're a programmer's way of 
standing on a hilltop and shouting to all the world, "I swear to you, 
this is true.  There may be a gazillion lines of code out there and 
GBytes of program state, but right here, right now, within this circle 
I've drawn in the sand, I know this to be true, and you can depend on 
that.  You can make it part of the foundation on which you begin to 
reason about program behavior.  Furthermore, if it turns out not to be 
true, you don't have to worry about figuring out who's fault it is.  I 
hereby declare that it's my fault".