Ticket #149 (new defect)

Description

All checks in the system assert() that they are not running when fired. This assert is a "design by contract." However, the ideal behaviour is to allow an assertion counter that is exposed through the selfcheck. It should be a debugging compile-time option to keep the asserts, otherwise, the check fire is short-circuited, an error is logged and a check-start contract violation counter is increment which is reported via selfcheck.