title: Why assert is not largely used?
body: <p>I found that <a href="http://docs.python.org/reference/simple_stmts.html#grammar-token-assert_stmt" rel="noreferrer">Python's assert statement</a> is a good way to catch situations that <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/944592/best-practice-for-python-assert"><em>should never happen</em></a>. And it can be removed by Python optimization when the code is trusted to be correct. </p>
  
  <p>It seems to be a perfect mechanism to run Python applications in debug mode. But looking at several Python projects like django, twisted and zope, the <code>assert</code> is almost never used. So, why does this happen?</p>
  
  <p><strong>Why are asserts statements not frequently used in the Python community?</strong></p>