I have a .Net Web application that references several .NET class
libraries. All the code is written in Visual Basic .NET. The code
contains lots of assertions, and I'd *really* like to get them working.
However, they're just not failing!

My problem arises in functions like this one:

Public Shared Function Exists(ByVal key As UserKey) As Boolean

   Debug.Assert(Not key Is Nothing)

End Function

The assertions aren't creating dialog boxes that halt the application
like I expect them to. This is true for all of my methods. To be
certain, I added this to the first executable line of code in the
startup project:

Debug.Assert(False)

The assertion had no effect on the execution of the application.

There's no way I can believe that the code is that solid.

According to the documentation, you have to add this section to the
configuration file:

<configuration>
   <system.diagnostics>
      <assert assertuienabled="true" />
   </system.diagnostics>
</configuration>

So I did that. Still nothing. I am really frustrated here. THe
documentation is vague at best, and the information you need to get
your application to use them correctly is scattered all over the place.
I *still* don't know what happens to the assertions in a class
library. Does a class library need its own configuration file in
addition to the one provided by the hosting application?

Any help you folks could provide would be greatly appreciated.
Anyway, I could really use some help here. If anyone can suggest some
things to look at to help with this, I'd really appreciate it. I have a
beta test coming up really quickly, and I'd like to get the code