Strict Mode

[nhunzaker]

Microcosm has quite a few assertions under the hood to catch for impossible states. For example, this assertion runs to make sure the register() method is working with a valid action status:

console.assert(STATUSES[status], 'Invalid action status ' + status)

I'd like to expose these in a microcosm.strict.js build. Presently, they get stripped out using babel-plugin-unassert. As we discover undesirable states, we could continue to add such assertions. We might even go so far as to add warnings, which won't raise an exception, just help with using Microcosm the way we intend it to be used.

I see a few tasks:

• Create a microcosm.strict.js build that does not remove assertions.
• Add an installation.md guide to our docs, with information on strict mode, how to use it, and how to remove assertions in production. This could just be by providing an example Webpack module alias.

We also need to be really intentional about reporting unexpected behavior, so we can add support in this strict build.

This is somewhat related to #250

[mackermedia]

Would strict-mode by default be the most helpful to new/unknowing microcosm devs?

[nhunzaker]

I think so. Yes. I'm just hesitant to end up with assertions running in production that check for things that aren't necessarily an error, but poor usage.

[nhunzaker]

Sorry... what's the best way for us to accomplish this?