Preprocessor Defines

In general we try to avoid using preprocessor defines, with a directory based mechanism used to switch in platform specific code where this is necessary, instead of preprocessor defines (see Source Code Packages).

As supplied, then, the PathEngine project configuration uses just one internal preprocessor define, ASSERTIONS_ON, which is set in standard debug configurations, and which turns on assertion checking.

This define can be turned off in debug builds, if you need these debug builds to run faster (at the expensive of assertion checking), or turned on in release builds (if you need extra checking in these builds), or even set individually per compilation unit if this is desired e.g. to control the exact set of assertions applied when debugging.

There are then a couple of other internal preprocessor defines which can be used to obtain some additional speed for the standard release build, described in Building for Maximum Speed.

And other 'external' defines may then also be used, in project configuration and on a per-platform basis, e.g. to control aspects of the standard library headers.