ipython/ipython — pull request #872 by temporaer (2011-10-14 12:29:09+00:00)
Title: The constructor of Client() checks for AssertionError in validate_url to open a file instead of connection to a URL if it fails.

The constructor of Client() checks for AssertionError in validate_url to open a file instead of connection to a URL if it fails.

When running python -O, this failed, since the assertions were optimized away and other (random) errors were thrown.
These random errors are not catched. IMHO one should not depend on the side effects of assertions, which has been done here.