shrinking "assert (X)" and "abort ()"

[Paul Eggert]

When NDEBUG is not set, standard implementations of "assert" do something
like this:

  #define assert(X) ((void) ((X) || __assert_fail (#X, __FILE__, __LINE__, 
__func__))

Sometimes I'd rather have something smaller and faster
in production code, something like this:

  #if __GNUC__ < 3 || (__GNUC__ == 3 && __GNUC_MINOR__ < 3)
   #define __builtin_trap() abort ()
  #endif

  #define assert(X) ((void) ((X) || (__builtin_trap (), 0)))

as this is good enough if you have a debugger, and it prevents code
bloat.  For example, with GCC 4.6.0 on x86-64, this would typically
save about 50 bytes of code space per 'assert', or more if the assertion
is a long expression.

Of course I could do this with a new macro (assert_trap, say),
but that'd be an intrusive change into the source code.

I'm thinking of adding a new module, "assert-trap" say, that modifies
assert.h so that "assert" has the above behavior.  I know the resulting
assert.h wouldn't conform to the C standard, because the C standard
requires a runtime diagnostic with the file name, but that's OK.

Similarly, I'm thinking of adding a new module "abort-trap" that
does the same for abort ().  This wouldn't be as big a savings
-- only 3 bytes of instruction per abort call, on an x86 -- but
it should squeeze more instructions into the cache and thus help
performance in some cases.

Comments?