Assertions and Directives 5 Assertions and Directives Assertions enable the programmer to provide KAP with additional information about the program. Although many KAP users run the product without assertions, sometimes assertions can improve the optimization results.
Directives control advanced features and transformations on a local basis.
KAP does not guarantee that an assertion will have an effect. KAP notes the information provided by the assertion, and if that information helps, KAP uses it. To understand the process KAP uses in interpreting assertions, it is necessary to understand assumed dependences. Assertions can be unsafe, because KAP cannot check the correctness of the assertions. If you provide incorrect information, then the KAP generated code may give different results than the original scalar program generates.