Ed,

>In that case, use an ASSERT to write a message via DEBUGOUT indicating what failed, and give the developer the option of immediately opening the debugger to see where the ASSERT triggered,

Isn't it too late to open the debugger after the assert has triggered? The debug output window must exist at the time the debugout is executed for the text to display. This can be handled by an ACTIVATE WINDOW "debug output" inside the code. Although this would throw an error in the runtime environment.