Incorrect usage of python assertions

[Bain-OS]

The way python assert statements are used here is potentially not correct. These should be raising exceptions instead

See these for example, I have not done an exhaustive search
https://github.com/stanfordnlp/dspy/blob/main/dsp/templates/template_v2.py#L102
https://github.com/stanfordnlp/dspy/blob/main/dsp/templates/template_v2.py#L188

The reason this usage is incorrect: when deploying production python codebase it is good to set the optimize flag which removes asserts. i.e asserts should only be used as a development/debugging tool

see more here https://docs.datadoghq.com/code_analysis/static_analysis_rules/python-best-practices/no-assert/

[arnavsinghvi11]

Hi @Bain-OS , thanks for raising this. These asserts were set up for the open-source development and testing of DSPy. Definitely agree that these should be removed in production environments, and it would be great if you have any ideas on keeping a flag for this within the codebase to make DSPy production ready. Feel free to open a PR on it!

[tom-doerr]

I think @Bain-OS is worried about the exact opposite.
When you run a Python program in production you can set the optimize flag (-O) which results, among other things, in asserts being removed.
This would mean no errors are thrown for the cases the asserts are checking for in production.
I however can't tell if that is unwanted behavior or actually wanted in this case.