Lua code generation and optimisation

["David Collier" <myshkin@...>]

I'm thinking about code size.

If I write

 if CheckCarefully and fred > 3
 then
     print("help fred is >3 which is a very bad idea in our case")
     return
 else
     <whatever using fred>
 end
 
Can I set up the value of CheckCarefully so that the compiler can omit
the print and omit storing the error string.

Or will it always create the strings in the bytecode?

If this won't work, anyone got a good way to have code and strings in
during testing phase and omitted in deployed code?
The C preprocessor would do it, but I hate the idea of using facilities
from another language.

TVM

D