Removing all Trace of Assertions from Class Files

Programmers developing for resource-constrained devices may wish to strip assertions out of class files entirely. While this makes it impossible to enable assertions in the field, it also reduces class file size, possibly leading to improved class loading performance. In the absence of a high quality JIT, it could lead to decreased footprint and improved runtime performance.

The assertion facility offers no direct support for stripping assertions out of class files. However, the assert statement may be used in conjunction with the "conditional compilation" idiom described in JLS 14.19:

 static final boolean asserts = ... ; // false to eliminate asserts

     if (asserts)
         assert <expr> ;

If asserts are used in this fashion, the compiler is free to eliminate all traces of these asserts from the class files that it generates. It is recommended that this be done where appropriate to support generation of code for resource-constrained devices.