pattern for stripping binder documentation

[pixelzoom]

I see 12 occurrence of

assert && phet.chipper.queryParameters.binder ...

For example, in Slider.js:

// support for binder documentation, stripped out in builds and only runs when ?binder is specified
assert && phet.chipper.queryParameters.binder && InstanceRegistry.registerDataURL( 'sun', 'Slider', this );

Using assert in this way (to strip out things other than assert) seems a bit questionable. Labeling for discussion at developer meeting.

[zepumph]

Is the goal is hiding behind assert to make sure it only runs in development mode?

[pixelzoom]

Based on comment "...stripped out in builds and only runs when ?binder is specified", that appears to be the goal.

[jonathanolson]

If it helps, it's possible to override other globals as false during the uglify step, so that simplification will strip things out of builds.

[pixelzoom]

11/29/18 dev meeting:

@samreid options: (1) get rid of assert && and get a few more chars in the html file, or (2) create a new flag like 'isRequirejsMode`.

@zepumph create a lint rule to allow only assert && assert, not assert && somethingElse. This would prevent putting assert && before a block of assertions, or assert && Object.freeze.

@mbarlow12 Not sure what direction binder is going to go in. This approach gets SVGs from the sim. So wondering if this is even something that we want to keep.

@jonathanolson @samreid assert && Object.freeze is probably OK, since we'd never want to do freeze without assertions enabled.

Assigned to @mbarlow12 to determine whether this is needed for binder. If not, remove it. If it is needed, then bring it up for discussion again at dev meeting.

@samreid If it's needed, then using a different flag is a likely option.

[zepumph]

Note that there are now 57 usages of this pattern.

[zepumph]

I think that the way forward would be a new global that is set to false when building code, so that the optimizer strips this out. I think that a general thing, like "isUnbuilt" seems better that something specific like "usingBinder." This way we only need to touch the build process to support this once. I will add this to my plate at a low priority.